Dear Khalid,
Thank you for your reply. Regarding what CRULP-FAST-NU or the NLA and
National Library are doing with the issue of Urdu Language is of totally
separate nature and is not a very public or transparent activity so far.
Whereas the Urdu fonts/keyboard is available at the CRULP website, they are
not available under Free or Open Source Licenses so that causes an
implication for freedom of usage and derivation of works. CRULP is a member
of and is funded by PAN Localization of IDRC, Canada.

FOSSFP is an organization that promotes ICTs enablement through FOSS for
reducing the digital divide and promoting knowledge development and
innovation. Secondly the FOSS South Asian Consortium at BytesForAll is to
(i) Build cross-border regional South Asian links among FLOSS campaigners,
users and supporters
ii) Share resources and building networks among those working on
localization of FOSS, particularly on languages which have implications for
more than one country in the region, or whose initiatives we can learn from
(with a special emphasis on Urdu, Bengali, Nepali, the Devanagari script,
smaller languages currently unsupported by FOSS and/or proprietary software,
etc). In this way, we hope to complement, support and spread awareness about
useful initiatives like IndicComputing, Ankur Bangla, and the MPP
initiatives on Nepali localization. On the Urdu front, in particular, links
between Pakistan and north India (particularly) are needed on the FOSS
front.

Where we continue to discuss these issues and reap nothing but
comments/debates, it is suggested that you join our FOSS South Asian
Consortium localization group and contribute in a meaningful manner and
share your previous work and benefit from the currently available resources.
The group is available at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_floss/.

Regards
-----------------------
Fouad Riaz Bajwa
General Secretary - FOSS Advocate
FOSSFP: Free & Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Secretariat

-----Original Message-----
From: Khalid Latif [mailto:klatif@...]
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 7:04 PM
To: bajwa@...
Subject: Re: FOSS and WSIS

Thanx for the quick reply.

I have read thru your *lengthy* email and mentioned files, mostly
telling me "how to install a keyboard layout and true type fonts" for
writing urdu in different applications like browsers and editors. Have
you ever contacted with National Langauges Authority (NLA) before/during
the said task. I personally know that NLA and FAST-NU had worked
together on developing nastaleeq true types font for Urdu and also an
installable windows keyboard layout [1,2]. They even once condunted a
"Urdu Software Competition". Worth looking into their efforts!

You might have noticed that I am keenly asking question about your work.
The reason is that I am a great fan of software localization in Urdu as
I have done a lot of work and invested much of my time during masters to
implement different urdu softwares. So don't be offended by my questions :)

Back to the point, have you done any implementation for Ubuntu
distribution other than the true-type-font (which already exists [3])?
and BTW why Linuxxx [3], I mean Ubuntu, just because it resembels with
Urdu?

Regards,
Khalid

[1] http://www.crulp.org/
[2]
http://www.cicc.or.jp/english/hyoujyunka/mlit4/7-10Pakistan/Pakistan2.html
[3] http://www.crulp.org/linuxphonetickb.html
[4] http://humorix.org/articles/2004/11/linuxxx/


Fouad Riaz Bajwa wrote:
> Dear Khalid,
> Thank you for your message. Kindly read through the reply below to the end
> till my signature for clarification of your questions and joining our
> activities and mailing lists.
>
> The information regarding FOSSFP at WSIS and our presentation can be read
in
> the WSIS news section at:
> http://www.itu.int/wsis/tunis/newsroom/highlights/18nov.html
> size 30267 bytes - 11/19/2005 1:13:40 AM GMT
> It reads: The "Sharing the Future" initiative
> - "Sharing the Future" is an initiative (www.unido.org/wsis) of UNDP and
the
> United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). It aims to
> assist small-and medium-size enterprises (SME) as well as non-governmental
> organizations (NGOs), according to UNIDO's Hans Pruim.
> - On another front, nearly 5,000 people in Pakistan - most notably women -
> have been trained to use free and open source software, said Fouad Bajwa
of
> Pakistan's Free and Open Source Foundation (www.fossfp.org), who added
that
> with UNDP and government support, the NGO was promoting "ICT literacy,
> fluency and education" through software awareness campaigns and measures
to
> combat software piracy."
>
> Regarding the URDU Localization Initiatives, we are carrying it out at
> PAN-ASIA Level with a network of FOSS organizations, kindly read the
> following and you can join and contribute to our FOSS Localization
Network:
>
> BytesForAll has just launched a new mailing list, specifically focused on
> Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS, or FOSS). Details of the group
> are below. We invite all interested to join.
>
> Rather than replicating the many existing FLOSS networks, this one intends
> to have a specific agenda (i) build cross-border regional South Asian
links
> among FLOSS campaigners, users and supporters (ii) share resources and
> building networks among those working on localisation of FLOSS,
particularly
> on languages which have implications for more than one country in the
> region, or whose initiatives we can learn from (with a special emphasis on
> Urdu, Bengali, Nepali, the Devanagari script, smaller languages currently
> unsupported by FLOSS and/or proprietorial software, etc).
>
> In this way, we hope to complement, support and spread awareness about
> useful initiatives like IndicComputing, Ankur Bangla, and the MPP
> initiatives on Nepali localisation. On the Urdu front, in particular,
links
> between Pakistan and north India (particularly) are needed on the FLOSS
> front.
>
> Your support and active participation is welcome!
> Many thanks to Fouad Riaz Bajwa <bajwa@...> of Pakistan for his
high
> energy levels and repeated prodding to BytesForAll for undertaking this
> initiative.
>
> INTRODUCING THE GROUP: A network to link Free/Libre and Open Source
Software
> (FLOSS, or FOSS) advocates in South Asia, with an intention of building
> regional links and specially encouraging localisation efforts in this
> populous part of the planet which can really benefit from the power of
> free-as-in-freedom software. This is a sub-group of the wider BytesForAll
> Network.
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_floss
> --
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> Frederick 'FN' Noronha      | http://fn-at-google.notlong.com
> Goa, India                  | fred@...
> Co-Founder, BytesForAll     | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9822122436
> -------------------------------------------------------------
>
> FLOSS ENTHUSIASTS CONSIDERING WORKING TOGETHER OVER URDU IN
> PAKISTAN AND INDIA: Gora Mohanty <gora_mohanty@...>
> in New Delhi has been discussing issues with Fouad
> <bajwa@...> in Lahore, and here are some highlights
> that might be of interest to others too:
>
> GORA MOHANTY: You might recall that we had some email
> conversations regarding Urdu localization of OpenOffice. I
> was very pleased to see your continued interest in
> localization, and to hear from Ravikant about his interaction
> with you. Karunakar and I work with Ravikant at Sarai on
> Indic language computing.
>
> It would be nice to form this consortium, and I would suggest
> that Urdu localization be the initial focus of this
> consortium.
>
> Some progress has been made on Urdu localization: 1. There
> are now GPL-licensed Urdu fonts from an organization called
> PakType. 2. CDAC, Pune has localized the OpenOffice 2.0 user
> interface into Urdu, though there are some issues with the
> drop-down selection boxes for a LTR language. 3. We have
> started work on a Hindi-Urdu transliterator, which can help
> by allowing a first-approximation transliteration from Hindi
> to Urdu, that can then be reviewed by an Urdu speaker. This
> way, we can take immediate advantage of the large amount of
> Hindi localization work that has already been completed. So,
> let us talk about how we can get this work started.
>
> FOUAD RIAZ BAJWA: [RE PAKTYPE] Yes I have heard about them
> and we will bring them to the consortium and mailing lists!
> [ON CDAC-PUNE LOCALISATION and URDU] Yes we discussed this in
> detail but Ravikant had reservations about them, although I
> consider it as a starting point for us. [ON HINDI-URDU
> TRANSLITERATOR] This is a grand endeavor, in fact if your
> group is successful in its implementation, similar work can
> be done for other regional languages in our and your region,
> we have over 70 regional languages even though I only know
> about nearly 10!
>
> We are already online and in this together now my friend, the
> mailing list is the first step, collection of all regional
> localization efforts are the second step, coordinating and
> forming a Regional Language Localization Task Force under the
> consortium would be also be a good step forward.
>
> Let's begin, here is the work and concept of the Ubuntu-Linux
> and Open Office in Urdu Language that we created last year
> and successfully ran it on over 16 systems, the team is
> broken as the person responsible for fonts left for his PhD
> to France and the other team leader is in his preparations
> for Germany, so the project is almost lifeless at the moment
> but this consortium will give it life.
>
> 1. FOSSFP Urdu Language Localization Project - ULLP
>    http://www.fossfp.org/ullp
>
> 2. Urdu Linux Localization Project Presentation
>    http://www.fossfp.org/fossac/downloads/ullp/ubuntu_localization.pps
>
> 3. Urdu Linux Localization Project Steps
>
> http://www.fossfp.org/fossac/downloads/ullp/steps_for_ubuntu_ver3.doc
>
> 4. Urdu Linux Localization Project Brochure
>    http://www.fossfp.org/fossac/downloads/ullp/pamphetlet.doc
>
> The Ubuntu-Linux team agreed to include it from their
> launchpad if we complete it and the next step would be to
> make a Linux Distribution from the consortium platform that
> covers our need of carrying all of our
> regional/sub-regional/indigenous languages towards computing.
> What would our vision be of creating Urdu/Hindi glossaries,
> Ravi was discussing something about glossaries....
>
> .........................................................
> FOR SOUTH ASIAN REGIONAL NETWORKING in the interest of
> Free/Libre and Open Source Software, join BytesForAll_Floss.
> There's space for all the diversity of the region. Special
> focus on dealing with issues that affect us in common
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_floss or
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_floss/join
>
>
> Regards
> -----------------------
> Fouad Riaz Bajwa
> General Secretary - FOSS Advocate
> FOSSFP: Free & Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Secretariat
> Office of the General Secretary
> 242-C, Johar Town
> Lahore-54700, Pakistan
> Cell: 92-333-4661290
> Tel: 92-42-5030039
> E-Mail: bajwa@...
> URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org
> Disclaimer:
> This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have
received
> this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail or
> FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan (R) takes no
> responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Khalid Latif [mailto:klatif@...]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 4:39 PM
> To: bajwa@...
> Subject: FOSS and WSIS
>
> Dear Mr. Bajwa,
>
> First of all, my best wishes and congrats on your open-source endeavor.
> I was reading some news cuts on your website, especially the FOSSFP's
> participation in WSIS. Such activities are must for promoting the
> efforts, getting community feedback on different issues, and the very
> important one - finding different grants for such a noble cause.
>
> What makes me write this email is the contents of [1]. If I am not
> mistaken "Sharing the Future" session by UNDP-UNIDO was held on 16th
> from 11:00 to 13:00. I have searched thru all the WSIS pages [2] but
> failed to find script of your talk. I would be very much obliged if you
> can share the slides of your talk or other document stating the current
> status of your work for the 12 points/issues mentioned on your website.
> Especially I would like to hear about the issue number 7 "Open Content
> E-Learning" and number 9 "Urdu Language Localization Project". Not to
> mention I have already scanned thru the IIIKM website for
> documents/publications on the former but again didn't find anything.
>
>
> Once again my congrats for your efforts, and best regards,
>
> Khalid Latif
> IFS, TU WIEN
>
> [1] http://www.fossfp.org/wsis
> [2] http://www.itu.int/wsis/tunis/index.html
>
>
>

In search of Public Truth online!
- Building a case for ICT Software Freedom
By
Fouad Riaz Bajwa
General Secretary FOSSFP http://www.fossfp.org
Author: "Copyrights & Copylefts - Building a case for ICT Software Freedom"
http://fossmullah.wordpress.com

As the Shuttleworth Foundation's Go-Opensource Episode 2 Video states that
blogging is not dark and smelly, it's fresh and new and it's incredible and
magnificent. It's on the internet and has got journalists in a frill.
Usually people are used to getting news through newspapers, magazines,
television or radio broadcasts, and news publisher websites. Behind the
scenes, international journalists and editors are preparing news and links
for syndication of news stories and those stories go through a process of
editing and vetting before they appear on printed page or other forms of
mass media. But amidst this process, a relatively new phenomenon has
introduced the element of anarchy and self expression in to the world of
journalism and proponents say that it's changing the way we get our news.

Journalism for the People by the People
Blogging is journalism for the people and they can write whatever they want,
people have a voice now through blogging, they don't have to go through
large vetted articles made by someone else. Blogging gives people the
opportunity to write articles that they want, their own opinions and anyone
can comment on it, anyone can read it if they want, they can share it with
other people and can derive new information or knowledge from them thus
sharing the principles of freedom from the Free and Open Source Software
Movement.

Where did Blogs come from?
The word blog is short for Weblog, and it can be about virtually anything,
from an online personal diary, travel story, cooking recipes to public
policy and political campaigns. A blog is to the world of online publishing
what Free and Open Source is to Software.

What do blog readers feel?
Readers can feel in the same way the writers are feeling through their
Blogs, you can virtually write and share the bare truth or be as funny as
you want and the best part of it is that people can actually participate
through posting comments and sharing their opinion, it gives nourishment to
the phenomenon of free speech and open public debate sometimes even
influencing public policy development and change.

Blogs and public participation?
The problems with television and paper based news is that you can only write
letters or drop a call to the editor and it is in his power to accept or
reject or choose what gets printed or is sent on air. Through Blogs, people
can actually participate in the news sharing their point of views and
getting the feel of news as it happens. Feedback has always been necessary
for human change and need fulfillment; it's a basic form of human self
expression indicating feelings and response towards opinions.

Are all Blogs truth and nothing but the truth?
The sense of community and interactivity offered by Blogs gives birth to a
new form of transparency of information. If you're posting garbage and false
facts online, obviously readers will see directly through and have the
freedom of rejecting the Blogger's blog and searching out the facts from
other Blogs and online sources so the Blogger may immediately loose
credibility and interest of online readers. Successful Blogger are people
with a sense of responsibility of providing timely and accurately true
information so that they can enjoy public participation and sharing of
thoughts on account of their information. The whole concept of the blog
publishing ecosystem is to provide an environment where false information
doesn't see the light of day and nothing but the truth and open truth
reaches all corners of the globe.

A medium to extend or call for help?
Blogs extend new ways of sending voice to other parts of the world including
the bare facts of super imposed rules and discrimination. Blogs help send
the voice of human right violations and call for relief worldwide within
seconds or a short duration of the activity taking place. Blogs help lobby
and create adequate support from social actors' worldwide thus enabling help
that was otherwise not easy to mobilize in the past through tele or printed
mass media.

To Blog or not to Blog, what really is the question?
The biggest need for Blogs is to link to articles and related material that
are sharing similar points of views, may be against the views, or provide
further support as evidence to the thought provoking information at hand or
discussion. These links may from be from the legitimate media like video
clips from CNN and BBC showing the same footage but portraying different
points of view from American or European critics and analysts, the online
community may have a totally different point of view and may reference to
these footage materials building the case that why both CNN and BBC may not
be right or wrong. Having links pointing to the sources of what actually
initiated the whole discussion and comments gives credibility automatically
to the blogging activity.

Boring or Interesting Information
That depends on the context of the information being presented as well as
the fact that Bloggers tend to share their moods and problems while
initiating the discussions at hand. Some Bloggers may be sharing no news and
just their assignments and homework, some may be sharing online discussions
regarding improving public access to public infrastructure and some may be
discussing politics. Some Blogs may also be creating conflict with the
authorities in the target countries or region and may face bans like the
case of China where Blogs have actually been banned. Blogs may be personal
opinions or public opinions or just information for the common good or
information to pass time or information that actually provides humanitarian
good at large. The point of be boring and interesting goes back to reader
choice or the type of author of the blog and more or less, Blogs start
sharing information mostly between the authors friends and then grows
outwards to becoming recognized by a wider range of reader community. Once
again, the success of Blogs may be influenced by the vast majority of its
readership that may belong either to one region or may attract a global
audience.


Where does one draw the line between journalism or blogging
A blog does not imposter an editor like a piece of journalism,
revolutionizing online journalism, Blogs are a revolutionary form of online
publishing but may not necessarily be journalism, even though this may be
the stance of some journalists, there have been cases where online blogging
has evidently crossed the line in to global journalism like in the case of
Bloggers from the Iraq conflict have provided inside account of stories and
coverage of news from the conflict areas of what the Iraqi people and the
forces are facing.

You as your own editor
Its information lying online ready to be accessed by anyone or everyone,
everyone can be an editor, anyone can participate, everyone can share the
content on one blog with another by just linking to it or what the blogging
community calls as Blogrolling. The blogging phenomenon is building a spider
web of its own and the future may see just blog communities being accessed
for most of the information being offered for interested readers. An example
may be that someone may maintain a family blog that gives only a couple of
people the right to read, post or exchange links and they may be the authors
family relatives and friends thus the author may identify and control his
own readership, a trait normally found on the news desks where the editors
choose and edit news they deem fit for their readership, it actually shares
perceptions of a wider or confined space of choices.

Spicing up blogging with RSS
Is RSS a new aircraft or weapon technology, no its value addition to the way
we used to get our news and how we share news with others on the World Wide
Web. RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication helps readers get or distribute
the news they want by providing them customization of their own online news
websites and Blogs, so how about throwing printed paper news out and grab
your computers?

Simplifying a really simple syndication technology
An RSS feed (feed is the term for defining information acquisition or
distribution) can be a standalone software program or a web browser plug-in,
it automatically updates news and blog websites that the reader subscribes
to without the reader having to login to them, if something is interest
catches the reader's eye , they immediately read it, share it, include it to
their own blog or even reference it in their research.

A source of new online income
Yes, Blogs and RSS technologies are transforming in to money making ventures
for people around the world. People actually get paid by companies today to
write articles to the company's blog network. Entrepreneurs are also
receiving angle money and venture capital funding to build and promote
Blogs. Blogs are now perceived as communities of learning and knowledge
networking, where information is in context, it becomes knowledge and
knowledge facilitates innovation and better delivery of services and
products. In fact the time is not far when most educational and business
resources will be available through Blogs and commercial business websites
will be made via blog and RSS technology.

Catching the FOSS Mullah red handed
If you want to catch the FOSS Mullah red handed, he has a blog titled
"Copyrights & Copylefts" that is in search of ICT Software Freedom. This
article is part of his research series about "Building a case for ICT
Software Freedom" and you can actively participate and comment on the FOSS
Mullah's blog. Of course, that happens to be me!

References
1. Shuttleworth Foundation "Go-Opensource" video episode 2
http://www.go-opensource.org
2. Copyrights & Copylefts - Building a case for ICT Software Freedom"
http://fossmullah.wordpress.com
3. Word Press Blogs http://www.wordpress.com, http://www.wordpress.org
4. Typepad http://www.typepad.com
5. Drupal http://www.drupal.org
6. Blogspot http://www.blogger.com
7. Free Press http://www.freepress.net
8. FOSSFP http://www.fossfp.org
9. Free Software Foundation http://www.fsf.org
10. Open Source Initiative http://www.opensource.org
11. Association for Progressive Communications Blog http://blog.apc.org
12. APC Asia ICT Policy Meeting Blog http://www.apcasiaictpolicy.net

Language pack for Marathi
-------------------------

From:  priti patil <pritisd@...> To:
marathiopensource@yahoogroups.com, indianlc@yahoogroups.com,
indlinux-group@..., mlp-staff@...,
dev-l10n@..., mozilla-l10n@... Subject:
(Debian/1.5.dfsg+1.5.0.1-4 Firefox/1.5.0.1.) with link.
Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2006 22:40:23 -0700 (PDT) (Mon, 11:10 IST)

Hello All,

Get the language pack and installation instructions here

http://indix.cdacmumbai.in/janabhaaratii/page_gen.php?lang=en&body=/download/dow\
nload_langpack.html

Regards.

Priti Patil
janabhaaratii Team

Comments from Shahzad and Ravikant. Share your views too! FN

http://www.apcasiaictpolicy.net/blog/shahzad/dilemma-of-urdu-language
Dilemma of Urdu Language

Submitted by Shahzad on Fri, 2006-04-21 09:25.

Urdu is not only the national language of Pakistan but is
among top 6 largest spoken languages in the world.

Just fail to understand that with all the huge financial
investments, special focus on IT education during past 6
years, tall claims of government, massive injections of funds
to resource and equip public sector universities in Pakistan,
so called "REVOLUTIONS" in IT curricula, return of brains...
drained earlier... Urdu still doesn't have a suitable, free
and easy to use html editor, an Urdu email software, a
messenger and freely available fonts.

Who is responsible to set the very basics right???... I don't
think it is a policy issue but in fact a matter of
willingness...

I have seen "some" student's projects though which could
easily be refined and put on some websites for free downloads
but who cares...

Dilemma of Urdu continues... don't know for how long!
Shahzad's blog | add new comment | 9 reads

choices for urdu
Submitted by Ravikant on Fri, 2006-04-21 13:39.

I share your thoughts shahzad. As I said, what's true for
urdu has been true for hindi, its twin-sister. Thankfully we
have all the basic tools in place now, except a free
publishing software. That is why i feel people of India and
Pakistan need to come together to share whatever is available
in either, take help from Persian or arabic tech-language
communities. There is a group on yahoo for urdu which helps
people do computing in urdu. Here is the link. Also visit the
file section of the group home page and you will get a lot:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/urdu_computing/

Here is another link:

http://geocities.com/urdutext/thunderbird_urdu.html

I will post more relevant links when i go baqck and then we
can start a genuine dialogue. I will also let you know what
is available so far in deifferent parts of india.

If we start now, we can finish the work in a couple of years,
considering that a lot of it has already happened.

By Fouad Riaz Bajwa, FOSS Advocate
Copyrights & Copylefts - In search for ICT Software Freedom
http://fossmullah.wordpress.com
General Secretary, FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of
Pakistan http://www.fossfp.org

I can still recall the first day at the Kram Expo Centre in Tunis last year
during the World Summit on the Information Society 2006 as I was making
preparations for exhibiting FOSSFP projects in the space allotted to me by
UNDP when I was overwhelmed to see Sunil Abraham, Program Manager of the
International Open Source Network in action as usual but this time he wasn't
alone like the last time he dropped in at the FOSSFP National Free and Open
Source Software Awareness Campaign in Pakistan. He was leading a team of
documentary camera men! I knew the very instant that our Open Source dude
was up to something, and yes, he was covering FOSS related activities and
interviewing the global FOSS Movement members about their struggle to
advocate and promote the usage and adoption of FOSS globally.

As I was suspecting, Sunil approached me and asked me my availability for a
brief question and answer session with his team, I replied in approval and
after a few hours Sunil had me rushing with him wearing a Media Entry Permit
towards the Media Pavilion of the Kram Expo Centre. I was seated in a small
room with a camera focused on me and a mic hovering right above my head!
Yes, it was my few minutes of fame where I exchanged my views over how the
FOSS movement was taking on in my region and what do we foresee about its
future. I remember the best part, when I actually forgot a word I wanted to
say near the end of the interview shoot and for the first time in my life, I
ordered to the cameraman "CUT!" who shocked by the sudden shout while
catching me on tape, popped up from behind his camera and first shot a
glance full of amazement at me and then towards Sunil who was ultimately
smiling in response to what had just happened. I discussed the word with
Sunil and we dropped the idea of the answer to that particular question with
that particular word I had forgotten and we were back in the shoot and then
yes, it was complete.

Later during that day and the days to follow, I would see Sunil and his team
running all over the place conducting interviews and the best part of all,
Sunil got footage of Richard Stallman of the Free Software Movement, Bruce
Perens of the Open Source Software Movement, me of course of the Free & Open
Source Software Movement, Molly from Malaysia, FOSSFA from Africa and lots
of more important FOSS people and organizations. I am telling you, the world
is in for a treat of a technological life time. I don't know anything about
the script; I don't know which direction the documentary is going to take
the world towards, I have no idea what a surge the documentary might send in
to the proprietary world but I am definitely sure of one thing, it will
change the way forever how the world perceives Free and Open Source
Software.

Information about the "The Code Breakers" documentary is available on the
BBC website. BBC states that "Microsoft has dominated the world of computing
for many years, with its heavily guarded ‘code’ being beyond reach to many
in the developing nations. In some of the poorest countries the cost of
upgrading an operating system to keep up with the rest of the world amounts
to a year's wages, and there are few legitimate options. In Thailand for
example, 95 percent of software on computers is pirated. The poorest
countries are now beginning to use free or open source software (FOSS), a
software that parallels many of Microsoft's programmes but with the major
difference being that they are distributed free of charge and can be altered
by computer programmers who are allowed unfettered access to the 'source
code'. In this two-part documentary, Code Breakers includes stories and
interviews from around the world where FOSS is making an impact, from
disaster management in Sri Lanka to tortoise breeding programmes in the
Galapagos."

The schedule for airing "The Code Breakers" documentary by BBC World is:
(Pakistan Standard Time):
11 May 2006: 0030 - The Code Breakers Part 1
18 May 2006: 0030 - The Code Breakers Part 2
GMT:
11 May 2006: 0470 - The Code Breakers Part 1
18 May 2006: 0470 - The Code Breakers Part 2

Another documentary soon to follow after The Code Breakers
This is not the beginning and its definitely not the end, I feel that this
documentary is a message to all the nations of the world, to the corporate
world, to academia, to implicitly and explicitly anyone and everyone that
FOSS is making waves and is here to stay and has revolutionized in to a Open
ICT Software Ecosystem promoting open standards and immense opportunities of
innovation, knowledge development and sharing. I wish I had come up with the
True Spirit of the FOSS Movement back then but once again, it was definitely
the right time when I shared the ideology/philosophy with the world at the
FOSSFA-IDLELO2 Conference February 2006 in Nairobi, Kenya. Thanks to the
inspiration that FOSSFP and FOSSFA share globally and the opportunity for
active participation extended to me by FOSSFA, I presented the ideology and
David Madié from Eighty Days Productions was there with his documentary crew
to cover the moment in the global FOSS Movement. David and his team are
making an unusual documentary on the FOSS Movement. Madié's current film is
a character-driven film that focuses on some of the people involved in the
Free/Libre and Open Source communities [FN]. "Therefore," Madié says, "as
much as it's a film about FLOSS, it's also a film about fighting for your
beliefs. This film will show the characters fighting for what they believe
in. This happens to be Open Source, which I think is also an important
agenda"[FN].

When Madié was enquired by the famous voice of the FOSS Movement, Frederick
Noronha that why he had selected such an unusual, maybe unglamorous and
certainly technical, subject? Madié explained "That's because I used to be
in the IT sector. I once ran a joint-venture company in Uganda and came to
know about an African country like Uganda. I was very ignorant about Africa
-- as many Europeans are -- and I was surprised by the skills and the
talent, and all the modern science of a capital city like Kampala that has
skyscrapers taller than what we have in Copenhagen."

FOSS has not only promoted a philosophy introduced by the software
development world but has also introduced a new way of perception towards
humanity. Whether it is the multimedia work of Mark Shuttleworth's Go-Open
Source Campaign, IOSN or David, the voice of Frederick Noronha or the
advocacy efforts by thousands or maybe millions of FOSS Movement members
worldwide, it only strengthens the movement and grows it bigger and bigger
on a daily basis. Efforts like these will go a long way to mark milestones
in the history of mankind when humans embraced ICT for their sustainable
socio-economical development and embarked upon FOSS, a little flower plant
seeded by Richard Stallman, that budded in to flowers and re-decorated by
Bruce Perens and that were bought by the FOSS Movement as a whole.

The Spirit of the FOSS Movement
This is once again a grand time to celebrate the success of FOSS and share
the true spirit of the global FOSS Movement. The spirit is an ideology that
helps to strengthen the message of the FOSS movement globally. To embrace
the true spirit of FOSS we have to understand how to make a difference in
the world around us:
1. We believe that the software we generate as a result of our thoughts and
actions influences the people around us
2. We think about how we can add to the spirit of life rather than subtract
from it
3. We have the power to change the world around us through software built
under the umbrella of Open Standards and FOSS
4. We should never underestimate or neglect this power of software
5. We should nurture it and help others benefit from this/its true spirit
This FOSS friends and partners in service is the true spirit of the Global
FOSS Movement.

How to join the Global FOSS Movement
1. FOSS is a result of Freedom
2. If you let others decide what software you should use, you are not
seizing your own Freedom
3. You have a choice for adopting software for every situation in your life
4. You can choose software just like your actions and attitudes
Thus
1. You can choose your own Freedom!
2. Your own FOSS!
3. Your own Software!
4. And make a difference!

With knowledge and zeal to achieve the unachievable, by developing and
sharing knowledge for the benefit of humanity, the FOSS Movement will
continue to disrupt the dictatorship of the proprietary software world
leading and march towards an Information Society that embodies the
principles of sharing and open society.

References:
----------------------------------------
1. The Code Breakers, BBC World,
http://www.bbcworld.com/content/template_clickpage.asp?pageid=2783
2. Film-maker hunts for an unusual tech film... in Africa,
http://foss4us.org/node/240
3. Film-maker documents African free software movement, Tectonic, By
Frederick Noronha, 24 January 2006,
http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?id=833
4. FLOSS on the Big Screen, Linux Journal, By Frederick Noronha, 24 January
2006, http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8827
5. The Spirit of Free & Open Source
Software,http://www.fossfp.org/foss_spirit
6. BBC Schedules,
http://www.bbcworld.com/content/template_tvlistings_net.asp?pageid=668#start

Dear Aijaz,
The FOSS Localization Consortium at BytesForAll encourages you to join us and
continue your contributions in Urdu Language and to other South Asian languages
at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_floss. We are all working towards
bringing pan South Asian localization efforts on one platform in order to have
access to all these initiatives that are currently being carried out on their
own. This will not only help us in reducing re-invention of the wheel but will
also assist us in identifying what has been accomplished and where more efforts
are required and how to arrange the resources to support them.

Already Sarai India, FOSSFP Pakistan, ByesForAll Pan-South Asia, Nepalinux Nepal
and various other groups have teamed up and we encourage you to bring to the
group efforts like http://urduweb.org and
http://groups.yahoo.com/urdu_computing. I look forward to receiving you at  the
consortium group :)

Regards
-----------------------
Fouad Riaz Bajwa
General Secretary - FOSS Advocate
FOSSFP: Free & Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan ® Secretariat

-----Original Message-----
From: General-bounces@...
[mailto:General-bounces@...] On Behalf Of Aijaz Akhtar
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2006 10:19 AM
To: indlinux-group@...; gora_mohanty@...
Cc: general@...
Subject: [LinuxPakistan] Urdu L10N to be reinitiated

Dear all
I again request that the Urdu initiative be re-initiated with supports from
IndLinux as well as those who can join from outside.
After Gora sent me the list of Urdu words transliterated from Hindi to Ravi,
Raman and me , and although I had commented to him that it perhaps does not seem
feasible, it does occur to me now, that in place of transliterating character by
character, will it not be possible to replace word for word? This would be a
better idea. Also, since many applications like Mozilla, Wordpress, phpbb etc
have already been translated, one need not reinvent the wheel (sorry for this
cliché). I suggest that a glossary of English words be collected and the
available translations be standardized, and then we can use the Hindi po files
and replace word for word. (Hindi to Urdu is better for little change of grammar
is needed, DikhayeN, JaayeN will all be common) If such a list can be prepared,
I offer my help for translation. Many members of http://urduweb.org too have
been showing keen interest in Urdu l10n (and have done wordpress, mambo, phpbb,
even Gnu GPL! in Urdu).
Aijaz
PS. But as a second thought, are Hindi words too standardised? In the po files
of gnome, I found "Chabi" as well as "Bimb" for image!! In Urdu, Bimb would be
"Aks" while "Chabi" may be "Shakl", more strictly, but "Chitra", not used in the
po files, would be "Shakl" or "Soorat". In fact, "imb" seems a misnomer.
Aijaz


Aijaz Akhtar (Aijaz Ubaid)
Permanent Address:
"Maman", 9-1-25/A/1,
Hashim Nagar, Langar House
Hyderabad-500 008, India
Phone (040) 23526002
Present: Director, Engineering geology Division, Central Region, Geological
Survey of India
Seminary Hills, Nagpur 440 006
Phone: (0712) 2510484
Mobile: 09371043529
http://urduweb.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/urdu_computing
samtmag.blogspot.com
http://e-samt.4t.com
اردو پڑھۓ، لکھۓ،
بولۓ، سیکھۓ، کمپیوٹر
اور انٹر نیٹ پر بھی��
_______________________________________________
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Dear Linux and Open Source Software Community Members,

As an effort to share and benefit from Free & Open Source Software knowledge
as it becomes available, FOSSFP is pleased to share a book on Asterisk, the
Open Source Internet Telephony platform. We thank our community members for
forwarding us the link.  The title "Asterisk: The Future of Telephony"
online is the result of hundreds of hours of painstaking labor; this book
represents the work of Jim Van Meggelen, Jared Smith, and Leif Madsen over
the past year. Thanks to O'Reilly Media for publishing the book and agreeing
to publish it under the Creative Commons license online at
http://www.asteriskdocs.org/modules/tinycontent/index.php?id=11.

We encourage you to explore this book and develop skills in Open Source and
Open Standards based VoIP/SIP technologies. If you would like to share your
available knowledge about Asterisk or if you have developed applications and
utility software around it, please do share it with the FOSS community
members.

Regards
-----------------------
Fouad Riaz Bajwa
General Secretary - FOSS Advocate
FOSSFP: Free & Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Secretariat
Office of the General Secretary
Tel: 92-42-5030039
E-Mail: bajwa@...
URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org
Disclaimer:
This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received
this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail or
FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan (R) takes no
responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit.

BBC Documentary Code Breakers - Views
Building a case for ICT Software Freedom

By: Fouad Riaz Bajwa, FOSS Advocate
http://www.fossfp.org
http://fossmullah.wordpress.com

Ouch!:
It has only been a few minutes since the second and last episode of the BBC
produced documentary titled "Code Breakers" was aired on BBC World. The
documentary attempts to create a case for the adoption and usage of Free and
Open Source Software around the world in developing countries whereas
projects an image of the developed world to be almost unaware of what Linux
or FOSS is whereas the case is very different from all this. Moreover, the
documentary gives more coverage to the point of view of Microsoft
continuously showing some Mr. Murray of Microsoft Europe as if he was an
authority on Open ICT Ecosystems and the Free and Open Source Software
Movement in its entirety. What happened in the first episode was highlighted
well contributed by Dr. Molly of the Malaysian FOSS medical system community
earlier on the world FOSS community lists and what has been aired in the
second part will soon be heard over the global FOSS community lists as well.

Beware, RMS & Bruce are Aliens? The X-Files of the FOSS World Revealed!:
During the first episode of the documentary, the impact that it made was
that people from the developed world were almost unaware of FOSS, and that
they only knew about Microsoft Windows or Microsoft Office and someone
accidentally did know about something called uh, FOSS? Nice move, that's why
BBC was constantly showing the founder of the Free Software Foundation,
Richard Stallman (American), explaining the four freedoms of the Free
Software movement and the leader of the Open Source Movement, Bruce Perens
(English) emphasizing on the benefits of developing and adopting "Open
Source" software. From the perspective that has been attempted to be
developed, it seems as if these are the only two people from the developed
world to have presented the freedoms and the pumping adrenaline in to the
FOSS movement. I hope BBC doesn't believe that the leaders of the Free
Software and Open Software movements might be from the lost islands of the
developing world or even outer space? That means I am from Mars or was it
Pluto?

WSIS-Oh people just gathered around to have drinks and talk about &*(#$&^:
After hearing what United Nations was doing and what the World Summit on the
Information Society WSIS was discussing and trying to achieve, it seemed as
if the BBC documentary was a biased audit report of the WSIS 2005 and there
were a couple of people standing talking around about the future of the
Information Society. Sorry to say, even though BBC was there, it somehow
failed to see some 19,000 important and decision making people from over a
hundred nations worldwide at the summit since they were too busy
interviewing people there, drinking and talking about &*(#$&^.

In reality, WSIS was a global effort to create intervention and dialogue on
the future of the Information Society trying to evolve solutions towards
providing nations the Freedoms to create access, develop and share
Information and Knowledge for sustainable human socio and economic benefit
by adopting ICTs. The Tunis Agenda clearly states and supports the Free and
Open Source Software Movement though it was underrepresented during the
WSIS. There is wide acceptance that ICTs are enabled through FOSS in the age
of the Internet and globalized telecommunications. Thanks to BBC, WSIS was
just about Mr. Murray from Microsoft, the $100 dollar laptop and some
developing world technology called FOSS being implemented in far off African
countries..

Microsoft budging its nose into everything called FOSS or Open Source?:
Really, what was BBC trying to portray to its viewers? Was BBC trying to
develop a point of view based upon influences from a MNC giant of the
proprietary software world Microsoft? What BBC does not know is that it has
brought out to the world the hidden truth that the FOSS Movement is causing
disruption in the previously perceived norms and fud marketing practices of
the proprietary software world. Why need such a documentary in the first
place?

In reality, the FOSS Movement itself is well connected worldwide, the FOSS
leaders are continuously interconnected through lists and various global
activities and what has been already achieved is a strong example of the
commitment of the members of the global FOSS movement. FOSS is really
causing a surge throughout the globe. FOSS didn't receive the front cover
story or paid advertising to revolutionize as it exists today. Some may be
able to recall that Microsoft has been finding its way to interfering in the
FOSS movement. They penetrated in to the FOSSFA-IDLELO2, Feb 2006 in
Nairobi, Kenya conference to chant their (commercial interests oriented)
"Shared Source" concept that doesn't even come near the concepts or the
spirit of the global FOSS movement. Wait till you see the FOSS movement
confrontation with Microsoft from the event on tape through another producer
to be released by next year.

Does Microsoft even understand what the FOSS Movement really is?:
From the looks of the documentary and previous related activities, Microsoft
may be perceiving that the FOSS movement is just about code sharing, so they
will come in and give the idea of sharing and make friends with these pony
tailed geeks in sandals (remember the issues from Massachusetts and ODF)?
Uh, right. Sorry to say, Microsoft seems to be still as ignorant as it has
always been to towards the FOSS movement. Before describing more of the BBC
documentary episode two, let me guide you through the spirit of the FOSS
movement in order to identify the clear dissimilarities between Microsoft's
misperception of sharing and the FOSS concept of sharing for humanitarian
benefit.

The spirit of the FOSS Movement:
I will not be explaining the four freedoms of the Free Software Foundation
and the principles of the Open Source Initiative, what I will be explaining
are the underlying human motivational principles of developing social or
community oriented software for human benefit at large.  First of all,
whether we are software designers and developers, humanitarian aid workers,
United Nation's folks (the pro-FOSS group and not the anti-FOSS group),
members of development organizations and global forums, academia,
researchers, groups or individual enthusiasts, we all want to make a
positive difference to the people in the world around us. They can belong
anywhere from the developed or from the developing world irrespective of
age, color, race, religion, ethnicity or economic status.

We believe that the social or community software we generate as a result of
our thoughts and volunteer actions influences the people around us. Our
motivation to develop such software comes from the inner urge on how we can
add to the spirit of life rather than subtract from it. Since we have the
knowledge and resources to do so, and that leaders of the movement have made
such resources available globally, we can utilize this power to change the
world around us through software built under the umbrella of Open Standards
and FOSS. We are all well aware of this ability and thus we will never
underestimate or neglect this power of software development sharing that we
have acquired through the contributions and struggle of many heroes of the
FOSS movement. We will always nurture it and help others benefit from the
true spirit of the FOSS movement.

It's our choice and not Microsoft's regarding what software we should use!:
Thus, the above ideology helps us understand that Free and Open Source
Software is a result of Freedom. If we let others decide what software we
should use, we are not seizing our own Freedoms like our own human rights.
We have a choice for adopting software for every situation in our life
without restrictions and that choice should be supported with the fact that
whenever we want and whenever we feel it necessary to make changes or
modifications, we should have access to its source code. We should be free
to choose software just like our actions and attitudes.

EULA-End User Licensing Agreement or EULAS-Enabling Users Legal Access to
Source?
Would you consider, BBC or even Microsoft will ever be able to understand
this ideology of Freedom? Will Microsoft products ever carry an open license
to securing Freedom? Will the Microsoft EULA (End User Licensing Agreement)
be altered so as to freely allow anyone to carry the concept of code
sharing, modification, redistribution of derivate works, will I be able to
go to the Microsoft website tomorrow morning and download the source code of
Microsoft Office, add to that source the ODF (Open Document Format)
compatibility and upload it to the Microsoft website to make it available to
the rest of the world to download it freely on their Linux, Unix, Solaris
operating systems, I believe NO!

An attempt by Microsoft to tell the world that they co-exist with the FOSS
Movement?:
From what the both episodes of the document have portrayed, it can be
believed that Microsoft and BBC have attempted to show the world that there
is a co-existence of two software development models. One is the FOSS
Movement and the other is the Proprietary Commercial Model that has now come
into parallel existence. It further shows that the FOSS movement has given
Microsoft competition, sadly, FOSS is not giving competition to anyone, in
the Business Sense, might be, but we tend to accept FOSS as our basic right
and our basic freedom to access and create information and knowledge.

Second Episode, awww, ok poor little IBM and HP, lets give you the chance to
at least say something about OSS
In the last episode of the documentary, BBC was very kind enough to at least
allow the other Aliens like IBM and HP talk about what they were doing with
OSS and they gave their point of views and then pop in Microsoft again every
now and then to find some way to negate what these giants were talking
about. These giants did not adopt OSS or FOSS just because it was there,
they adopted it because they were forward thinkers and saw that the future
was towards ICT Software Freedom and choice to choose openness or closed
software. Sadly, again everyone was shouting out loud, FREEDOM & CHOICE, but
BBC and Microsoft were unable to hear that or understand it, I believe only
Aliens like us can understand these words.

A couple of Mobile Indian Buses and Sahana is FOSS:
Since we don't have money, and we are poor, we use FOSS? Since the Sahana
People didn't have money, they used FOSS, since kids in India are poor and
barefooted, they are taught to use FOSS. Once again, Microsoft pops in, we
will do it together? Sigh, again, why is only the developing world using
FOSS, to reduce the digital divide? These questions and comments might be a
bit rude or absurd, the intent is to help realize the fact that NO! That is
not why these organizations and countries used FOSS. They had better and
more access to FOSS resources than proprietary resources, more and more
people were willing to contribute and work in a situation that could not
have been facilitated by proprietary licensing and regulatory schemes. These
are people taking action finding solutions to their own problems at the
right place and time. They don't have to wait for someone from the
proprietary software world to tell them what is good or bad for their
situations. FOSS is a participatory approach to solving the problems through
software for their communities and answering to disaster relief calls on
time and providing affordable education.

I know my ICT Software Freedoms, do you?:
What am I trying to prove in all this discussion is just one small thing
that has a meaning of a global nature, FREEDOM to access information and
knowledge, FREEDOM to share that information and knowledge for the common
good and benefit of all humanity, FREEDOM to improve and add to that
information and knowledge, FREEDOM to create further information and
knowledge for mutual benefit through derivative works acknowledging the
contributions of others. The ability to understand and practice my choices,
rights and Freedom and to accept that others can share my FREEDOMS as they
share the air I breathe, they share the water I drink, they share the food I
eat, they share the education I receive, they share the same humanity that
composes me in to the human being I am, that is my motivation, my
inspiration, my spirit. Will Microsoft and BBC ever understand that? Is
there anyone in the world who understands this and can make a new
documentary about the true CODE BREAKERS from the FOSS Movement? I leave
this question to be answered by the readers.

These are the words of a South Asian Free & Open Source Software developer
and FOSS advocate or one of the true FOSS Code Breakers? Promoting ICT
Software Freedom for Everyone!

References:
1. BBC World documentary titled "Code Breakers" http://www.bbcworld.com
2. Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com
3. Free Software Foundation http://www.fsf.org
4. The Open Source Initiative http://www.opensource.org
5. Raymond, E. S. (2001), The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and
Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary, O'Reilly & Associates.
6. Raymond, E. S., The Cathedral and the Bazaar,
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/
7. The Spirit of Free and Open Source Software, Free and Open Source
Software Foundation of Pakistan http://www.fossfp.org/foss_spirit

Regards
-----------------------
Fouad Riaz Bajwa
General Secretary - FOSS Advocate
FOSSFP: Free & Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Secretariat
E-Mail: bajwa@...
URL: www.fossfp.org

Microsoft: Open source 'not reliable or dependable'
View the complete story at:
http://news.com.com/Microsoft+Open+source+not+reliable+or+dependable/2100-73
44_3-6074237.html?tag=nefd.pulse

A senior Microsoft executive told a BBC documentary that people should use
commercial software if they're looking for stability.

"I don't think (open source) is anti-Microsoft in the sense that it's giving
people choices in the technologies that they use," Jonathan Murray, the vice
president and chief technology officer of Microsoft Europe, told BBC World
in the first part of the documentary "The Code Breakers," which aired this
week.

"Some people want to use community-based software, and they get value out of
sharing with other people in the community. Other people want the
reliability and the dependability that comes from a commercial software
model. And again, at the end of the day, you make the choice based on what
has the highest value to you," Murray continued.

It isn't clear from Murray's statement which category he believes commercial
open-source companies such as Red Hat and MySQL fit into.


Forwarded by
-----------------------
Fouad Riaz Bajwa
FOSS Advocate
www.fossfp.org

Hello All,
Recently I wrote about FOSS in Weekly Ekattor Magazine.

If you are interested to know about FOSS, you can read the article by
downloading the PDF from http://www.ekushey.org/files/ICT_Report-FOSS-9th.pdf .

Please note that the article is in Bangla. :)

Thanks
  --
Omi Azad
Contributor
Bangla Computing and Localization Projects:
Ankur: http://www.ankurbangla.org
Ekushey: http://www.ekushey.org

NOTIFICATION:
Save your organizations from Software Piracy - FOSSFP will help you migrate
to Open Source Software!

Dear Community Members
Are you running pirated software in your companies, schools, colleges,
universities, departments, shops? Save yourself from legal litigation by the
BSA & Government of Pakistan for loading and running pirated software in
your businesses and organizations.

FOSSFP is a voluntary non-profit technology foundation that has the
resources and technical skills to help migrate your pirated software
infrastructure to 100% legally acceptable and allowed Open Source Software
infrastructures. Not only that, FOSSFP provides you free training and free
technical support (*Conditions apply), migrations and customizations to
manage your business and operation infrastructures. FOSSFP has already
trained over 5000 people from 506 organizations on FOSS; you can be included
in the count too!

PIRATED SOFTWARE ALTERNATES - WE WILL MIGRATE YOU!
We are providing the following types of migrations:
1. Desktop Migrations to Ubuntu-Linux (*Conditions apply)
2. Enterprise Migrations to Ubuntu-Linux Desktops and Novell or Red Hat
Servers (*Conditions apply)
3. In the event your infrastructures are using branded hardware like IBM
e-series or i-series, HP J-Class or N-Class, RAC architectures, specialist
consultants from FOSSFP partners including Ubuntu and Novell can be arranged
for corporate migrations and trainings.
4. Mandatory Graphic Design, 3D Modeling, Custom Business application
migrations will be arranged as per demand and costs may be applicable in
such requirements.

FREE TRAININGS!
We are providing the following trainings free of charge however Rs.100 per
head per training applies for covering administrative costs:
1. Ubuntu-Linux as an alternative to pirated versions of MS Windows Desktop
or Server
2. Novell Open Suse as an alternative to pirated versions of MS Windows
Desktop or Server
3. Red Hat Linux as an alternative to pirated versions of MS Windows Server
4. Open Office as an alternative to pirated versions of MS Office
5. FireFox as an alternative to Internet Explorer
6. Thunderbird and Evolution Mail as alternatives to pirated versions of MS
Outlook or Outlook Express
7. LAMP Development Model as an alternative to pirates versions of MS
development models
8. Blender 3D as an alternative to pirated versions of 3D Studio Max
9. GIMP, Scribus & Inkscape as an alternative to pirated versions of Corel
Draw, Adobe Photoshop & MS Publisher
*Special arrangements can be made for custom trainings of various mandatory
Open Source Software.

Conditions:
-----------
a. In the event that you invite FOSSFP team members to migrate your networks
from pirated software to OSS in a city other than Lahore, your organization
will have to take care of travel/air-travel (where applicable), lodging,
meals and to/from transport from your office site. To make onsite visits
affordable, we have representative companies in Karachi and Islamabad that
can be instructed to pay you a visit.

b. In the event that you invite FOSSFP trainers and instructors for Free
Training and Lectures, please drop us an email at training@..., in
case of out of Lahore travel, your organization will have to take care of
travel/air-travel (where applicable), lodging, meals and to/from transport
from your office site. To make onsite visits affordable, we have
representative trainers in Karachi and Islamabad that can be instructed to
pay you a visit to deliver lectures.

c. FOSSFP does not guarantee or warranty Free and Open Source Software and
provides such software on an as is and no-guarantee or warranty basis. You
may use FOSS at your own personal risk.

d. FOSSFP provides Ubuntu-Linux and various other OSS software
free-of-charge including CDs. However companies like Novell and Red Hat may
charge for customer support options as per their commercial offerings.

e. Where FOSSFP strives to protect your possessions, however, you are
responsible for the security and handling of your PC and hardware equipment,
incase of loss of any type of hardware or office equipment, FOSSFP
trainers/instructors/technical consultants will not be responsible, it is
recommended to move your own equipment when and where required by FOSSFP,
arrange meeting rooms and separate corners away from regular business
activity or office work to accommodate such activities.

f. Where applicable, and affordable, FOSSFP can advise you/counsel you
towards acquiring proprietary licenses for applications not available within
FOSS options (that is a very rare thing!).

g. FOSSFP cannot protect you from legal litigation, FIA arrests or search
warrants; however, FOSSFP can help you by providing you legally permitted
OSS software to immediately shift over your pirated infrastructures.


FOSSFP is committed to helping you prevent Software Piracy, we are
volunteers committed to helping bring positive socio-economic change.
Founded by Pakistan's ICT Visionary Dr. M. A. Pasha, FOSSFP continues to
promote ICT Software Freedom for everyone.

Forward this email to everyone you know including friends, colleagues,
fellow business men etc. Save everyone you know from Rs. 2 Lac in fines,
business close up and 3 years in jail!

Regards
-----------------------
Fouad Riaz Bajwa
General Secretary - FOSS Advocate
FOSSFP: Free & Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Secretariat
Office of the General Secretary
E-Mail: bajwa@...
URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org
Disclaimer:
This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received
this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail or
FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan (R) takes no
responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit.

Is the availability of South Asian fonts such a crucial issue as made
out by this message: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bdlug/message/14310

If so, what can we as a group do to improve the situation? FN

On Jun 3, 2006, at 3:40 AM, Frederick Noronha wrote:

>  Is the availability of South Asian fonts such a crucial issue as made
>  out by this message: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bdlug/message/14310

First of all, some of the message thread you refer to is just about
local acrimony, so please ignore that part.

I see two major issues at play here:

1. Lack of typographic and fontographic knowledge by the designers.
More often than not, the fonts were designed by folks who happen to
have computer knowledge or access to those who do, not by those who
made a living designing fonts. This pretty much makes any originality
in the font face a moot issue. Then there's the mathematical side to it
- if someone starts with designing a typeface using Knuth's Metafont,
chances are that its future TrueType/OpenType/AAT variants will be
well-designed as well.

"Thinking with type" has some interesting info. See
http://www.thinkingwithtype.com/
Fiona Ross' "The Printed Bengali Character and its Evolution" has some
great stuff on Bangla script.

2. Outright piracy, or the rubbery concept of borrowing ideas. That's
the discussion behind the message thread you refer to. Sadly enough,
some folks think that company going out of business means that it's
intellectual property is up for grabs.

>  If so, what can we as a group do to improve the situation? FN

Training, training, and training. Publish pedagogic materials and best
practices. Get the major vendors to put in some real money (not crappy
fonts they throw in just to say "we support a font for that script") in
designing bundled in fonts.

An unrelated, but larger IMO, issue for Bangla (and most of the indic
scripts as well) is the absolutely atrocious code point design for
pre-Unicode fonts. We're working on automatically converting the
non-unicode font-encoded documents to unicode by crawling the web, but
the sheer number of these undocumented encodings is killing us. This is
a critical issue for the future -- any document that cannot be indexed
by a typical search engine will be deemed lost on the web, and that's
how languages start getting lost in the era.

Regards,
Mumit

--
Mumit Khan, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
Head, Center for Research on Bangla Language Processing
BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
+88 (02) 988-1265 Extension 4019

Frederick Noronha wrote:
> Is the availability of South Asian fonts such a crucial issue as made
> out by this message: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bdlug/message/14310

There is no situation. I thought people know about it. But when I found
they need to know what is going on, I explain the situation on the above
link.

>
> If so, what can we as a group do to improve the situation? FN


Everything should be under control now. :)

Omi





.

Dear Dr Khan, Thank you for your kind and detailed response. It makes
a lot of sense to me.

Yes, I am not talking about the angry words in the link mentioned. In
a situation of scarcity, we will *all* be reduced to fighting among
ourselves. When there is plenty, there's no need to fight over resources.

I was wondering if we could do something to approach groups that could
support the creation of more free fonts. I am not keen in undertaking
any funded project myself, but if the skills exist to do it and the
funding support is available (maybe from IOSN, IDRC or wherever),
can't a group like this help to marry the two?

We do have a problem of shortage of fonts, from what I understand, in
a number of Indian languages too. FN in Goa, India.

PS: Kindly visit http://feeds.goa-india.org for a number of RSS feeds
related to GNU/Linux and Free/Libre and Open Source Software.

--- In bytesforall_floss@yahoogroups.com, Mumit Khan <mumit@...> wrote:
>
> On Jun 3, 2006, at 3:40 AM, Frederick Noronha wrote:
>
> >  Is the availability of South Asian fonts such a crucial issue as made
> >  out by this message:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bdlug/message/14310
>
> First of all, some of the message thread you refer to is just about
> local acrimony, so please ignore that part.
>
> I see two major issues at play here:
>
> 1. Lack of typographic and fontographic knowledge by the designers.
> More often than not, the fonts were designed by folks who happen to
> have computer knowledge or access to those who do, not by those who
> made a living designing fonts. This pretty much makes any originality
> in the font face a moot issue. Then there's the mathematical side to it
> - if someone starts with designing a typeface using Knuth's Metafont,
> chances are that its future TrueType/OpenType/AAT variants will be
> well-designed as well.
>
> "Thinking with type" has some interesting info. See
> http://www.thinkingwithtype.com/
> Fiona Ross' "The Printed Bengali Character and its Evolution" has some
> great stuff on Bangla script.
>
> 2. Outright piracy, or the rubbery concept of borrowing ideas. That's
> the discussion behind the message thread you refer to. Sadly enough,
> some folks think that company going out of business means that it's
> intellectual property is up for grabs.
>
> >  If so, what can we as a group do to improve the situation? FN
>
> Training, training, and training. Publish pedagogic materials and best
> practices. Get the major vendors to put in some real money (not crappy
> fonts they throw in just to say "we support a font for that script") in
> designing bundled in fonts.
>
> An unrelated, but larger IMO, issue for Bangla (and most of the indic
> scripts as well) is the absolutely atrocious code point design for
> pre-Unicode fonts. We're working on automatically converting the
> non-unicode font-encoded documents to unicode by crawling the web, but
> the sheer number of these undocumented encodings is killing us. This is
> a critical issue for the future -- any document that cannot be indexed
> by a typical search engine will be deemed lost on the web, and that's
> how languages start getting lost in the era.
>
> Regards,
> Mumit
>
> --
> Mumit Khan, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
> Head, Center for Research on Bangla Language Processing
> BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
> +88 (02) 988-1265 Extension 4019
>

Dear Fred,
The issues at hand here in terms of the non-availability of standardized
fonts for localization initiatives is definitely very true. We as a
collective lack certain skills for font design as well as sustainability
options for such projects in terms of finance and continuity through
intellectual resource retention.

I believe it is prime time for us to identify and initiate a properly
planned and funded project under the consortium taking standardized efforts.
I have already received requests from Novell for providing localized
versions of their Suse OS as well as we have open options for Ubuntu-Linux
distributions.

I believe at some stage we had to step in to this area, well why not start
from now. We may have the options of working with either GKP, Hivos or OSI
and as some of them are in India, they would be in a position to support
such an initiative and we can launch similar centers in our regions of
concentration?

I will be at Asia Commons in Bangkok and I am sure you will also be there
with us, let's take out some time and discuss these options. One thing is
for sure, I wouldn't support the call for IOSN or IDRC since that would drag
us back in to the Pan-Localization group that has already played its part in
its own way. We have already received many directions from such initiatives,
that's why we opted for freedom in our case and to share that freedom for
all concerned in similar initiatives.

We would have never gone for the consortium if the PAN-Loc had provided
standardized fonts under FOSS terms in the first place. Since they have all
the rights, they have tried to bring the open nature of fonts under self
imposed copyrights and intellectual protection. We have to change this a
bit, for all the regions we are catering to, we will have to initiate our
processes and name the project "FREEDOM FONTS"

Secondly, Fred, remember the area where I discussed issues about FOSS
heroes, I think we should begin some concrete programmes so that all these
localization efforts do receive the recognition. Its time we went for the
proper funding options. I await your comments and recommendations.

Regards
-----------------------
Fouad Riaz Bajwa
General Secretary - FOSS Advocate
FOSSFP: Free & Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Secretariat

-----Original Message-----
From: Frederick Noronha [mailto:frederick.noronha.goa.india@...]
Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2006 1:32 PM
To: bytesforall_floss@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: South Asian fonts

Dear Dr Khan, Thank you for your kind and detailed response. It makes
a lot of sense to me.

Yes, I am not talking about the angry words in the link mentioned. In
a situation of scarcity, we will *all* be reduced to fighting among
ourselves. When there is plenty, there's no need to fight over resources.

I was wondering if we could do something to approach groups that could
support the creation of more free fonts. I am not keen in undertaking
any funded project myself, but if the skills exist to do it and the
funding support is available (maybe from IOSN, IDRC or wherever),
can't a group like this help to marry the two?

We do have a problem of shortage of fonts, from what I understand, in
a number of Indian languages too. FN in Goa, India.

PS: Kindly visit http://feeds.goa-india.org for a number of RSS feeds
related to GNU/Linux and Free/Libre and Open Source Software.

--- In bytesforall_floss@yahoogroups.com, Mumit Khan <mumit@...> wrote:
>
> On Jun 3, 2006, at 3:40 AM, Frederick Noronha wrote:
>
> >  Is the availability of South Asian fonts such a crucial issue as made
> >  out by this message:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bdlug/message/14310
>
> First of all, some of the message thread you refer to is just about
> local acrimony, so please ignore that part.
>
> I see two major issues at play here:
>
> 1. Lack of typographic and fontographic knowledge by the designers.
> More often than not, the fonts were designed by folks who happen to
> have computer knowledge or access to those who do, not by those who
> made a living designing fonts. This pretty much makes any originality
> in the font face a moot issue. Then there's the mathematical side to it
> - if someone starts with designing a typeface using Knuth's Metafont,
> chances are that its future TrueType/OpenType/AAT variants will be
> well-designed as well.
>
> "Thinking with type" has some interesting info. See
> http://www.thinkingwithtype.com/
> Fiona Ross' "The Printed Bengali Character and its Evolution" has some
> great stuff on Bangla script.
>
> 2. Outright piracy, or the rubbery concept of borrowing ideas. That's
> the discussion behind the message thread you refer to. Sadly enough,
> some folks think that company going out of business means that it's
> intellectual property is up for grabs.
>
> >  If so, what can we as a group do to improve the situation? FN
>
> Training, training, and training. Publish pedagogic materials and best
> practices. Get the major vendors to put in some real money (not crappy
> fonts they throw in just to say "we support a font for that script") in
> designing bundled in fonts.
>
> An unrelated, but larger IMO, issue for Bangla (and most of the indic
> scripts as well) is the absolutely atrocious code point design for
> pre-Unicode fonts. We're working on automatically converting the
> non-unicode font-encoded documents to unicode by crawling the web, but
> the sheer number of these undocumented encodings is killing us. This is
> a critical issue for the future -- any document that cannot be indexed
> by a typical search engine will be deemed lost on the web, and that's
> how languages start getting lost in the era.
>
> Regards,
> Mumit
>
> --
> Mumit Khan, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
> Head, Center for Research on Bangla Language Processing
> BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
> +88 (02) 988-1265 Extension 4019
>

A must read on Copy South Copyright Issues:
http://www.kent.ac.uk/law/copysouthfiles/dossier.htm

Regards
-----------------------
Fouad Riaz Bajwa
General Secretary - FOSS Advocate
FOSSFP: Free & Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Secretariat

--- In bytesforall_floss@yahoogroups.com, "Fouad Riaz Bajwa"
<bajwa@...> wrote:

> Secondly, Fred, remember the area where I discussed issues about FOSS
> heroes, I think we should begin some concrete programmes so that all
these
> localization efforts do receive the recognition. Its time we went
for the
> proper funding options. I await your comments and recommendations.

Okay, action initiated on that. Getting started is easy. Keeping
things going is more tough!

Please visit http://wikiwikiweb.de/SouthAsianFLOSSHeroes

It's a rough and dirty attempt at building a wiki page.

Please also feed it with some more stories. Or, if you have
suggestions on some good people I could write on, let me know. We need
to ensure that we cover all of South Asia... not just India (because
there are more people here). FN

Dear Community Members,
BytesForAll [Fredrick Noronoha] South Asia, FOSSFP Pakistan and Sarai India
including a number of partner organizations at the "South Asian FLOSS
Consortium" are in the process of compiling information about people from
South Asia who have made a significant effort to promote Free and Open
Source Software in their regions.

This will not only recognize these individuals globally but will also help
us document the heroes of the FOSS movement including opportunities to bring
them on to one platform to learn from their experiences and widen their
scope of contribution to the FOSS Movement in Asia. Who knows we might even
gather around together in any location around South Asia and intervene as a
collective on how we can contribute more meaningfully to the Free and Open
Source Software Movement!

If you have made significant efforts to promote Linux, develop widely used
Open Source Software, educated the masses, introduced FOSS in to the
government, civil society or private sectors, we invite you to forward your
biography or a case study detailing how you got involved and what are your
achievements and plans for the future. We will inform you when we take you
online and where you can step in to make a much larger contribution to one
the largest, fastest and most quiet ICT movements of this era!

You may forward your information to:
Fred(at)bytesforall.org.
Bajwa(at)fossfp.org

"Recognition is another form of an Awakening, this time, with a larger
meaning of life!" - Fouad Bajwa

Regards
-----------------------
Fouad Riaz Bajwa
Volunteer BytesForAll
Member "South Asian FLOSS Consortium & Localization Initiative - Hosted by
BytesForAll"
General Secretary - FOSS Advocate
FOSSFP: Free & Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Secretariat
Office of the General Secretary
Cell: 92-333-4661290
Tel: 92-42-5030039
E-Mail: bajwa at fossfp.org
URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org
Disclaimer:
This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received
this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail or
FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan (R) takes no
responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit.

Right says Fred,

I've sent out the word on all the community lists here and there ;) We are
definitely gonna see some good feedback, I am also going to bring out some
case studies for you that you can write on. See you in Bangkok tomorrow
inshAllah!

"Where there is will there is a way has been reinvented to - Where there is
a need, there is always action, and we just have to direct it into positive
or negative!" - Goofling

Regards
-----------------------
Fouad Riaz Bajwa

-----Original Message-----
From: bytesforall_floss@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:bytesforall_floss@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Sunday, June 04, 2006 1:51 PM
To: bytesforall_floss@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bytesforall_floss] Digest Number 10


There is 1 message in this issue.

Topics in this digest:

    1.  Re: South Asian fonts
          From: "Frederick Noronha" frederick.noronha.goa.india@...

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Message: 1
    Date: Sat Jun 3, 2006 5:10 am (PDT)
    From: "Frederick Noronha" frederick.noronha.goa.india@...
Subject: Re: South Asian fonts


--- In bytesforall_floss@yahoogroups.com, "Fouad Riaz Bajwa"
<bajwa@...> wrote:

> Secondly, Fred, remember the area where I discussed issues about FOSS
> heroes, I think we should begin some concrete programmes so that all
these
> localization efforts do receive the recognition. Its time we went
for the
> proper funding options. I await your comments and recommendations.

Okay, action initiated on that. Getting started is easy. Keeping
things going is more tough!

Please visit http://wikiwikiweb.de/SouthAsianFLOSSHeroes

It's a rough and dirty attempt at building a wiki page.

Please also feed it with some more stories. Or, if you have
suggestions on some good people I could write on, let me know. We need
to ensure that we cover all of South Asia... not just India (because
there are more people here). FN






________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________



------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links




------------------------------------------------------------------------

--- In bytesforall_floss@yahoogroups.com, "Frederick Noronha"
<frederick.noronha.goa.india@...> wrote:
>
> Yes, I am not talking about the angry words in the link mentioned. In
> a situation of scarcity, we will *all* be reduced to fighting among
> ourselves. When there is plenty, there's no need to fight over resources.

So true.

> I was wondering if we could do something to approach groups that could
> support the creation of more free fonts. I am not keen in undertaking
> any funded project myself, but if the skills exist to do it and the
> funding support is available (maybe from IOSN, IDRC or wherever),
> can't a group like this help to marry the two?

For Bangla, what I'd like to see is a truly beautiful font that is also open
source. Now, that's
going to require typographic/fontographic skills in addition to technical to get
it right. We
may be able to find a funding source (IDRC small grants program for example),
but it will
require leadership to find and manage the HR.

We need to put the art back in the fonts.

> We do have a problem of shortage of fonts, from what I understand, in
> a number of Indian languages too. FN in Goa, India.

Bangla is fortunate to have a variety of free OTF fonts thanks to the efforts by
some
wonderful organizations and individuals (Ankur and Ekushey to name just two).
There is
also a yet unreleased Rupali AAT font Rupali by Raiyan Kabir. I don't know the
status of
other indic scripts though.

> PS: Kindly visit http://feeds.goa-india.org for a number of RSS feeds
> related to GNU/Linux and Free/Libre and Open Source Software.

Thanks for the pointer. Will do.

Regards,
Mumit

--- In bytesforall_floss@yahoogroups.com, "Fouad Riaz Bajwa" <bajwa@...> wrote:
>
> I will be at Asia Commons in Bangkok and I am sure you will also be there
> with us, let's take out some time and discuss these options. One thing is
> for sure, I wouldn't support the call for IOSN or IDRC since that would drag
> us back in to the Pan-Localization group that has already played its part in
> its own way. We have already received many directions from such initiatives,
> that's why we opted for freedom in our case and to share that freedom for
> all concerned in similar initiatives.

This must be in a context with which I'm not familiar, but I am certainly
interested why you
think that IDRC will not be good funding source for this. I can say from
personal
experience that there's been no conflict whatsoever in our releasing all of our
IDRC-
funded work as open source or open content under GPL. In fact, IDRC encourages
open
sourcing the software deliverables from its projects; Laurent Elder specifically
brought up
this issue during the last partners meeting in Siem Reap.

> We would have never gone for the consortium if the PAN-Loc had provided
> standardized fonts under FOSS terms in the first place. Since they have all
> the rights, they have tried to bring the open nature of fonts under self
> imposed copyrights and intellectual protection. We have to change this a
> bit, for all the regions we are catering to, we will have to initiate our
> processes and name the project "FREEDOM FONTS"

It is upto the funded bodies to decide what license they'd use (to a certain
extent), and
there's quite a bit of open source outputs from Pan Localization project.
Perhaps you're
talking about font development specifically under Pan Localization, which I know
little
about, so can't really comment. But I would request that you first see what
licensing
restrictions, if any, are placed by IDRC before making somewhat leading remarks.

The term "freedom" in software has been an interesting and elastic concept since
the mid
to late 80's. It's been bandied about in all sorts of ways, for all sorts of
purposes.

Regards,
Mumit

Dear All,
We have been working as a small team here in Nepal in
localizing FOSS. Please visit the site
http://www.nepalinux.org for details regarding our
works on FOSS localization.
Should we be able to help FOSS promoters in one way or
the other, we would be more than happy.
Regards,
Bal Krishna Bal
Project Manager
PAN Localization Project
Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya
Lalitpur, PatanDhoka
Nepal

--- Fouad Riaz Bajwa <bajwa@...> wrote:

> Dear Community Members,
> BytesForAll [Fredrick Noronoha] South Asia, FOSSFP
> Pakistan and Sarai India
> including a number of partner organizations at the
> "South Asian FLOSS
> Consortium" are in the process of compiling
> information about people from
> South Asia who have made a significant effort to
> promote Free and Open
> Source Software in their regions.
>
> This will not only recognize these individuals
> globally but will also help
> us document the heroes of the FOSS movement
> including opportunities to bring
> them on to one platform to learn from their
> experiences and widen their
> scope of contribution to the FOSS Movement in Asia.
> Who knows we might even
> gather around together in any location around South
> Asia and intervene as a
> collective on how we can contribute more
> meaningfully to the Free and Open
> Source Software Movement!
>
> If you have made significant efforts to promote
> Linux, develop widely used
> Open Source Software, educated the masses,
> introduced FOSS in to the
> government, civil society or private sectors, we
> invite you to forward your
> biography or a case study detailing how you got
> involved and what are your
> achievements and plans for the future. We will
> inform you when we take you
> online and where you can step in to make a much
> larger contribution to one
> the largest, fastest and most quiet ICT movements of
> this era!
>
> You may forward your information to:
> Fred(at)bytesforall.org.
> Bajwa(at)fossfp.org
>
> "Recognition is another form of an Awakening, this
> time, with a larger
> meaning of life!" - Fouad Bajwa
>
> Regards
> -----------------------
> Fouad Riaz Bajwa
> Volunteer BytesForAll
> Member "South Asian FLOSS Consortium & Localization
> Initiative - Hosted by
> BytesForAll"
> General Secretary - FOSS Advocate
> FOSSFP: Free & Open Source Software Foundation of
> Pakistan R Secretariat
> Office of the General Secretary
> Cell: 92-333-4661290
> Tel: 92-42-5030039
> E-Mail: bajwa at fossfp.org
> URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org
> Disclaimer:
> This e-mail message is intended for its recipient
> only. If you have received
> this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author
> of this e- mail or
> FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of
> Pakistan (R) takes no
> responsibility for the material, implicit or
> explicit.
>
>
>


"Perseverance is the hinge of all virtues"

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

Dear All,
We have been working as a small team here in Nepal in
localizing FOSS. Please visit the site
http://www.nepalinux.org for details regarding our
works on FOSS localization.
Should we be able to help FOSS promoters in one way or
the other, we would be more than happy.
Regards,
Bal Krishna Bal
Project Manager
PAN Localization Project
Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya
Lalitpur, PatanDhoka
Nepal


--- Fouad Riaz Bajwa <bajwa@...> wrote:

> Dear Community Members,
> BytesForAll [Fredrick Noronoha] South Asia, FOSSFP
> Pakistan and Sarai India
> including a number of partner organizations at the
> "South Asian FLOSS
> Consortium" are in the process of compiling
> information about people from
> South Asia who have made a significant effort to
> promote Free and Open
> Source Software in their regions.
>
> This will not only recognize these individuals
> globally but will also help
> us document the heroes of the FOSS movement
> including opportunities to bring
> them on to one platform to learn from their
> experiences and widen their
> scope of contribution to the FOSS Movement in Asia.
> Who knows we might even
> gather around together in any location around South
> Asia and intervene as a
> collective on how we can contribute more
> meaningfully to the Free and Open
> Source Software Movement!
>
> If you have made significant efforts to promote
> Linux, develop widely used
> Open Source Software, educated the masses,
> introduced FOSS in to the
> government, civil society or private sectors, we
> invite you to forward your
> biography or a case study detailing how you got
> involved and what are your
> achievements and plans for the future. We will
> inform you when we take you
> online and where you can step in to make a much
> larger contribution to one
> the largest, fastest and most quiet ICT movements of
> this era!
>
> You may forward your information to:
> Fred(at)bytesforall.org.
> Bajwa(at)fossfp.org
>
> "Recognition is another form of an Awakening, this
> time, with a larger
> meaning of life!" - Fouad Bajwa
>
> Regards
> -----------------------
> Fouad Riaz Bajwa
> Volunteer BytesForAll
> Member "South Asian FLOSS Consortium & Localization
> Initiative - Hosted by
> BytesForAll"
> General Secretary - FOSS Advocate
> FOSSFP: Free & Open Source Software Foundation of
> Pakistan R Secretariat
> Office of the General Secretary
> Cell: 92-333-4661290
> Tel: 92-42-5030039
> E-Mail: bajwa at fossfp.org
> URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org
> Disclaimer:
> This e-mail message is intended for its recipient
> only. If you have received
> this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author
> of this e- mail or
> FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of
> Pakistan (R) takes no
> responsibility for the material, implicit or
> explicit.
>
>
>


"Perseverance is the hinge of all virtues"

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

----------------------------------------------------------------
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8"""" 8"""88 8""""8 8""""8              01010101010101010101010101010
8     8    8 8      8        e  eeeee   Editor Frederick [FN] Noronha
8eeee 8    8 8eeeee 8eeeee   8  8   8   International Open
88    8    8     88     88   8e 8e  8   Source Network
88    8    8 e   88 e   88   88 88  8   http://www.iosn.net
88    8eeee8 8eee88 8eee88   88 88  8   01010101010101010101010010101


    .oo         o           .oPYo.                o  d'b  o
   .P 8                     8    8                   8
  .P  8 .oPYo. o8 .oPYo.   o8YooP' .oPYo. .oPYo. o8 o8P  o8 .oPYo.
oPooo8 Yb..    8 .oooo8    8      .oooo8 8    '  8  8    8 8    '
P    8   'Yb.  8 8    8    8      8    8 8    .  8  8    8 8    .
P    8 `YooP'  8 `YooP8    8      `YooP8 `YooP'  8  8    8 `YooP'

June 2006. AsiaCommons issue. Released at Bangkok, Thailand

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
IOSN NEWSLETTER * IOSN NEWSLETTER * IOSN NEWSLETTER * IOSN NEWSLETTER *
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

IN THIS ISSUE

SPOTLIGHT
Asia Commons: Asian Conference on the Digital Commons,
Bangkok, Thailand, 6-8 June 2006

ASIA-PACIFIC REPORTS
Governments, Going Online and Macau

IN THE MEDIA
Bangladesh, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Asia

TIDBITS FROM HERE AND THERE
IOSN Grows to Three More
Software Freedom Day
Partnerships with Asia
LPI Certification in Northeast Asia
Intel Commits Big Money to Third World Project
FOSS Scholarship in India
GNU/Linux in Local Languages: Nepali
Messaging Solution for Small and Medium Companies in the
Philippines
Winner from Singapore

LINKS FROM ASIA-PACIFIC
Open Source in Singapore
English-Telugu Dictionary Online
UNEGOV.NET, Promoting FOSS in e-Governance
Computers, School and Goa
Whom is This Coming From?
Feeds from Asia
Spreading software, the human, low-cost way

QUOTE...UNQUOTE
South Asia, Malaysia

*************************************************************
SPOTLIGHT
*************************************************************

AsiaCommons: The Asian Conference on the Digital Commons, was
held in Bangkok, Thailand, from June 6-8, 2006. For detailed
coverage of the event see http://asia-commons.net

Asia Commons' goal was to bring together participants from
Asia-Pacific and around the world to discuss, explore and
collaborate around three key themes:

      * Access to Knowledge and Culture in Asia
      * Models for Collaborative Knowledge and Culture
      * Towards a Healthy Asia Commons

Asia Commons has some interesting perspectives, and their
ideals flow in close parallel to the Free/Open Source
Software (FOSS) movement.

Many resources exist on the conference themes, including:

* del.icio.us Links: Del.icio.us is a public collection of
web resources which anyone can contribute to. Resources added
(or 'bookmarked') in del.icio.us have been 'tagged' by their
contributors to describe the resource's content. Participants
are encouraged to contribute resources of interest through
del.icio.us using some of the tags above in order to discover
new resources shared by other del.icio.us users. Using
del.icio.us is easy, simply register for del.icio.us

* IPR with a Development Focus:
   http://del.icio.us/tag/ipr+development
* Access to Knowledge: http://del.icio.us/tag/a2k
* WIPO with a Development Focus:
   http://del.icio.us/tag/wipo+development
* Open Business (models): http://del.icio.us/tag/openbusiness
* Open Content: http://del.icio.us/tag/opencontent

* Copyright and Access to Knowledge:  Consumers Intenational
Asia Pacific Office has produced a research report Copyright
and Access to Knowledge as well as two country level studies
for Indonesia and Thailand. See: http://www.ciroap.org/a2k

* The Copy/South Dossier: Issues in the economics, politics,
and ideology of copyright in the global South:
http://www.copysouth.org/

* P2P Foundation Encyclopedia Resources: P2P Foundation is
building an encyclopedia with many topics related to the
conference themes:
http://p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Category:Encyclopedia

* Book Commons:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Book_Commons

* Copyleft:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Copyleft

* Creative Commons:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Creative_Commons

* Diffuse Innovation:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Diffuse_Innovation

* Distributed Creativity:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Distributed_Creativity

* Distributed Intellectual Property Right:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Distributed_Intellectual_Product_Right

* Educational Commons:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Educational_Commons

* General Intellect:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/General_Intellect

* General Public License:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/General_Public_License

* Genome Commons:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Genome_Commons

* Global License:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Global_License

* IANG License:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/IANG_License

* Information Commons:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Information_Commons

* Libre Commons Licenses:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Libre_Commons_Licenses

* Open Access:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Access

* Open Archives:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Archives

* Open Biology:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Biology

* Open Content:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Content

* Open Courseware Initiative:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Courseware_Initiative

* Open Data:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Data

* Open Educational Resources:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Educational_Resources

* Open Hardware:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Hardware

* Open Knowledge:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Knowledge

* Open Learning:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Learning

* Open Media Standards:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Media_Standards

* Open Networked Learning Model:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Networked_Learning_Model

* Open Source Architecture:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Source_Architecture

* Open Source Biology:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Source_Biotechnology

* Open Source Economics:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Source_Economics

* Open Source Hardware:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Source_Hardware

* Open Source Industrial Design:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Source_Industrial_Design

* Open Source Licenses:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Source_Licenses

* Open Source Record Label:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Source_Record_Label

* Open Source Telephony:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Source_telephony

* Open Spectrum:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Spectrum

* Open Standards:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Standards

* Open Textbooks:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Open_Textbooks

* Patent Commons:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Patent_Commons

* Peer Property:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Peer_Property

* Peer to Patent:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Peer_to_Patent

* User-Capitalized Networks:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/User-Capitalized_Networks

* User-centered Innovation:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/User-centered_Innovation

* Wireless Commons:
http://www.p2pfoundation.net/index.php/Wireless_Commons

*************************************************************
ASIA-PACIFIC REPORTS
*************************************************************

Governments, Going Online and Macau

FROM MACAU, REPORT SAYS, "GOVERNMENTS GO ONLINE - WITHOUT
WINDOWS": Inter Press Service had this interesting report on
26 March 2006.

      "Developing countries can't afford to buy Windows-based
      software. The basic Windows operating system costs a
      year and half salary for the average Vietnamese
      citizen," said Mike Reed, director of the United Nations
      University International Institute for Software
      Technology.

Electronic governance promises to cut corruption and improve
transparency, and open source software offers a way to break
South Asia's technological dependence on industrialized
countries, experts say.

Open source software such as Linux is non-proprietary, less
complex, more efficient and freely available to anyone -
unlike Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Windows operating system,
says Mike Reed, director of the United Nations University
International Institute for Software Technology (UNU-IIST),
based in Macau, China.

"Linux is now the fastest-growing software and powers eight
of the 10 fastest supercomputers in the world," Reed said.

Open source software like Linux is embedded in many types of
electronic devices, like mobile phones and cameras. Open
source is also starting to cut into the near complete
domination of the personal computer market by the Windows
operating system, he said.

"Developing countries can't afford to buy Windows-based
software. The basic Windows operating system costs a year and
half salary for the average Vietnamese citizen," he noted.

That's led to rampant theft or illegal copying Latest News
about illegal copying of Microsoft software. However, such
software cannot be modified or customized to meet local
needs. Companies and governments have no other choice than to
commission expensive custom programming from California's
Silicon Valley.

Open source, on the other hand, is easy to customize and not
particularly difficult to learn, says Reed. Although Linux
has been around for more than 10 years, only a few developing
countries like Brazil have a significant number of home-grown
open source programmers. Without local programmers, setting
up electronic governance - use of computer technology by
governments to improve public access to information and
services - becomes very expensive and difficult.

Access to computers is one major problem in the developing
world, and so is the lack of local programming projects so
that programmers can learn, says Reed.

Reducing Corruption

Vietnam is one exception. A few years ago, Vietnam launched
an ambitious effort to modernize, developing its own version
of Linux called Vietkeylinux, partnering with the computer
chip Latest News about computer chips manufacturer Intel
(Nasdaq: INTC) Latest News about Intel and moving to
electronic governance (e-governance).

"Vietnam has more things online than the U.S. government,"
Reed said.

Isolated Vietnamese villages now have public computer kiosks
where citizens can conduct business with the government
online, such as registering for birth certificates.

"That reduces mid- to low-level government corruption,
because it's easier to keep track of paperwork and everything
is visible and public," he said.

Government services are easier and cheaper to provide
electronically. Plus, such an electronic/information
infrastructure and expertise in these areas is crucial for a
country like Vietnam to successfully participate in the
global economy.

South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore are successful examples
of countries with low levels of corruption and high levels of
economic activity that other Asian countries are hoping to
emulate, Reed said.

The information revolution has been slow in reaching
two-thirds of the world, according to Darrell West, an
e-governance researcher at the Center for Public Policy at
Brown University in Providence, R.I.

"Many countries don't have the money, and some don't see the
benefits or have the desire to make the public sector open
and transparent," West told IPS.

Major Motivator

      In an exhaustive survey of the e-governance capabilities
      of 191 countries, West found that it is practically
      nonexistent in most African countries, as well as those
      in the Middle East. While money is the main problem in
      the former, the latter are dominated by "rich
      monarchical governments that have a very different view
      of public service and are not interested in
      e-governance," he said.

Although e-governance can reduce "street-level corruption,"
the biggest motivator for most countries is to improve their
economic development and boost their trade capacity, he said.
In the long term, West is optimistic. "Countries are
beginning to see the benefits and the cost reductions of
e-governance," he said. However, launching such initiatives
isn't easy and requires technical expertise, financing and
political leadership, Reed added.

It required a major two-year effort in the UNU home base of
Macau, on the coast of China. Among the most difficult parts
of moving to e-governance is getting government departments
to open up, share their information and cooperate with each
other, he said.

"It used to require permissions and licenses from 10
different agencies to start a business in Macau. Now, there
is just one online form," the researcher explained, and it
took a strong leadership that insisted government officials
make it happen.

The impoverished country of Nepal was on the verge of
achieving a good level of e-governance until the current
political strife erupted a year ago. Nepal's high level of
literacy and good mathematical education made it possible to
develop Nepalese programmers who, with UNU training and USD2
million in outside funding, built an open source e-governance
infrastructure.

Government Resource

E-governance in Nepal is effectively on hold now, said Reed.
This month, India announced an extremely ambitious national
e-governance plan to computerize data in public sector banks,
insurance companies and tax departments, create national
citizen databases, put passports, visas and immigration
information and data online, and much more. The two-year
effort is expected to cost USD1.5 billion.

To assist these e-governance attempts and to help other
countries get started, the UNU has established an interactive
information clearinghouse on the Internet that it calls
UneGov.net. In addition to having instructional how-to
materials online, the portal will make available software and
research papers, as well as contact information for others
who have or are setting up e-governance in their own
countries.

The World Bank is among funding agencies being approached.
Already, Vietnam is sharing some of its experience with
Nigeria, Reed said.

"People love to share their success stories," he concluded.

*************************************************************
IN THE MEDIA
*************************************************************

BANGLADESH: Omi Azad recently wrote about FOSS in the weekly
Ekattor magazine of Bangladesh.
<http://www.ekushey.org/files/ICT_Report-FOSS-9th.pdf>
(article in Bangla) Omi is a contributor to the Bangla
Computing and Localization Projects including Ankur
http://www.ankurbangla.org and Ekushey http://www.ekushey.org
For an active Linux User Group related to Bangladesh, see
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bdlug/

JAPAN: Controversial David software is out in Japan
<http://news.inq7.net/infotech/index.php?index=1&story_id=60585>

MALAYSIA: FOSS Spreading its Wings
<http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2006/5/2/itfeature/1407608
4&sec=itfeature> OPEN source is spreading beyond the
operating system market and is being utilised in other areas,
such as database and customer relationship management (CRM)
software. About 53% of Malaysian software is based wholly or
partly on open source, according to Wilvin Chee, IDC Asia
Pacific software research director. In his presentation,
Direction O6 Open Source Software: Its Impact to the
Marketplace, he said the Linux operating system would make up
15% of the overall server market this year.

PHILIPPINES: Open source better for those school PCs by Behn
Fer. Hortaleza
<http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/pan/2006/03/09/oped/behn.fer..hortaleza.ht
ml>

SOUTH ASIA: Linux powers autonomous military ground vehicle
<http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS5782785656.html> Interesting
to see LynuxWorks CEO Inder Singh has South Asian
connections. iRobot used embedded Linux to build an
autonomous unmanned ground vehicle aimed at military
scouting, guarding, and hauling applications. The "R-Gator"
is based on John Deere's diesel-powered, 658cc M-Gator
military utility vehicle platform, with control, navigation,
and object-avoidance systems based on BlueCat Linux from
LynuxWorks.

*************************************************************
TIDBITS FROM HERE AND THERE
*************************************************************

IOSN Grows to Three More
http://www.apdip.net/news/opensourcecentres
-------------------------------------------------------------
In order to address the growing information and technological
needs of the Asia and Pacific region, the International Open
Source Network (IOSN) has established three new Centres of
Excellence - IOSN ASEAN+3, IOSN PIC (Pacific Island
countries), and IOSN South Asia. Together, these Centres will
continue the research and development, networking,
institutional strengthening, and training undertaken by IOSN
over the last three years to advance the adoption of
free/open source software, open standards, and open content
across the region.

Software Freedom Day: Sept 10, 2006
http://www.softwarefreedomday.org
-------------------------------------------------------------
Software Freedom Day is a global, grassroots effort to
educate the public about the virtues and availability of
Free/Libre and Open Source Software. Over 200 teams are
registered so far, and they have plans to celebrate Free
Software at schools, universities, parks, and many other
public places.

How can I help: http://softwarefreedomday.org/helping
Forming a team: http://softwarefreedomday.org/StartGuide

Feeds from Asia
http://feeds.goa-india.org
-------------------------------------------------------------
      WHAT IS ASIA talking about? You can keep track via
      http://feeds.goa-india.org -- a site for RSS feeds of
      mailing lists discussing (mainly) FOSS in Asia. If your
      Asia and FOSS-linked mailing list offers RSS feeds and
      is not yet listed here, please contact
      fred@...

DP's REVIEW: You must be aware of the fact (atleast by now)
that there exists many LUG (Linux User Groups) and FSUG (Free
Software User Groups) which have publicly available feeds of
their message archive. However the number of user
groups/communities are not only very large...it's hard to
find out which ones have online mailing lists...which among
these have opened their message archive for public preview
(i.e. a visitor can read the messages without joining the
group)...and finally, what might be the URL's of those mailng
lists? One simple answer is http://feeds.goa-india.org/

It's a simple website with the message subjectlines from
members of various LUG's, FSUG's etc. of India (and some more
countries of Asia) appearing in reverse chronological order
.... You can expand a subject line to read the summary (the
default abstract that a website exposes through it's RSS/Atom
channel) and also read the full article by clicking on the
appropriate link.

Although, this site itself doesn't archive feeds for more
than a week, it serves as the perfect LUG newspaper. You get
to see all the news, links, software from such a wide variety
of sources and yet at the same time, they are guaranteed
fresh..thanks to the RSS technology...umm format actually. :)

Last but not the least...joining more than one LUG is
sometimes not only necessary (to get in touch with a
community of people better geared towards answering queries
in certain fields of open source/linux) but also encouraged
to volunteer your help to more people than just those in your
own user group or community. We need to get discussions going
on here...so maybe we'd feature on
http://feeds.goa-india.org. ;)

Hope you find the resource timely and useful. Or atleast a
constructive way of enjoying leisure time. -- Diabolic
Preacher ILUG-Ponda http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-ponda

Spreading GNU/Linux the low-cost, human way
http://linuxdvdsale.tripod.com
-------------------------------------------------------------
In India, bandwidth can still be an issue in many parts of
the country (apart from the bigger cities). In this context,
the best way to spread GNU/Linux software is to encourage
FOSS enthusiasts to replicate the same and sell the service
at a low-cost affordable price. One such example is Nelson
Lobo's http://linuxdvdsale.tripod.com (where, for India, a CD
costs a little over US$1 and a DVD under four dollars). Try
to replicate operations in your part of Asia. This could help
to make Free Software widely and affordably available.

Partnerships with Asia
http://opensource.sys-con.com/read/224587.htm
-------------------------------------------------------------
Enterprise Open Source News Desk reported on 19 March 19,
2006, Covalent Technologies, a trusted source for complete
enterprise open source solutions, has announced it has
entered into strategic partnerships with a number of
technology companies based in England, Germany, India, and
the Philippines. These new partnerships bolster Covalent's
ability to deliver commercial support and service offerings
for popular open source projects out of the Apache Software
Foundation on a global basis, namely the Apache Web Server,
Apache Tomcat Application Server, Apache Axis Web Services
Framework, and the Apache Geronimo Application Server, and
complement existing Covalent partnerships already in place in
Japan, Germany, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

LPI Certification in Northeast Asia, Linux News
http://www.linuxpr.com/releases/8750.html
-------------------------------------------------------------
The Linux Professional Institute (LPI) hosted certification
events and "exam labs" within the Northeast Asia region
(China, Japan, Republic of Korea) during May and June 2006 to
promote Linux and Open Source professionalism. Jim Lacey,
President and CEO of LPI, noted the growing importance of
China, Japan and Korea as part of the organization's new
global strategy.

Intel Commits Big Money to Third World Project, Nestor E.
http://www.itworldcanada.com/a/Daily-News/8318ae8c-3170-49e4-906c-f959add22722.h\
tmls
-------------------------------------------------------------
Arellano reports in ITWorld Canada (12 May 2006) that Intel
hopes to gain a head start on untapped markets in the Third
World by launching World Ahead, a global programme that will
pour USD1 billion over the next five years to promote
computer training and Internet use in developing countries.
The Santa Clara, California-based company recently unveiled
its five-year project plan, which includes extending
broadband access to one billion users and training 10 million
teachers on the use of technology in education. A component
of the programme is the development of a USD400 mobile
personal computer, dubbed Eduwise, that will run on Microsoft
Windows or the Linux operating system. The World Ahead
Programme will also push adoption of WiMax wireless
technology that allows high throughput broadband connections
over long distances.

FOSS Scholarship in India
http://www.in.redhat.com/community/rhscholarship.php
-------------------------------------------------------------
Mayank Sharma in an interview in Newsforge says, "there is no
dearth of IT talent in India, but for a country that churns
out thousands of IT students every year, the number of Indian
contributors in the FOSS world is disproportionately low, due
in part to a lack of proper mentoring. To encourage more
students to go into FOSS development, the Kanwal Rekhi School
of Information Technology (KReSIT) at the Indian Institute of
Technology Bombay partners with Red Hat for an open source
scholarship challenge each year. Participants, mentored by
FOSS leaders, get the opportunity to work and collaborate to
solve a real-world problem, and the winners get a share of
the Rs. 1 million (about USD22,000) prize." [Source:
http://business.newsforge.com/business/06/05/18/1459236.shtml?tid=35]

GNU/LINUX in local languages
http://blog.apc.org/en/index.shtml?x=4956277
-------------------------------------------------------------
NEPAL FINDS ITS SOLUTIONS: From simplified Nepali typing...to
an OS is an article by Bal Krishna Bal, published in April
2006 on the Association for Progressive Communications blog.
Bal tells the story where it starts: "Somebody rightly said,
'Necessity is the mother of invention'. Had it not been for
the necessity felt by Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya(MPP) for the
electronically cataloging of its collection of books some
four years back, which was then not possible with the help of
the existing fonts of Nepali like Preeti and Kanchan, there
are doubts that MPP, a principal archiving house got involved
in developing software in Nepali." And what they achieved was
something quite unexpected.

Messaging Solution for SMEs in the Philippines
http://www.axigen.com
-------------------------------------------------------------
AXIGEN Mail Server is now available for the Philippine market
as a result of the distribution agreement signed between
local company GEN Automation and Gecad Technologies
(Romania). AXIGEN Mail Server calls itself "a fast, scalable
messaging solution, perfectly adaptable to the communication
demands from both small and medium companies and Internet
services providers." Launched by the last fall, during Linux
World Expo in London, AXIGEN says it "succeeded until
nowadays to manage e-mails from over 300,000 mailboxes and to
be distributed worldwide through 10 valued partners." It
reached version 1.1 and operates on both Linux and FreeBSD.
AXIGEN Mail Server has been designed and created from scratch
by Gecad Technologies developers. Gecad Technologies has a
five-year history of expertise in technology research,
information security, project management and messaging
solutions. [Source: http://www.prleap.com/pr/34866/]

Winner from Singapore
-------------------------------------------------------------
Congratulations to Ricky Lee of Chevalier Singapore for
winning the Asia Pacific's RHCE (Red Hat Certified Engineer)
of the Year title. Red Hat would like to thank all RHCEs for
their submission. Ricky has won himself a sponsored trip to
the Red Hat Summit in Nashville, Tennessee, and will be
presented with the RHCE of the Year plaque.

*************************************************************
LINKS FROM ASIA-PACIFIC
*************************************************************

Open Source in Singapore
http://wiki.lugs.org.sg/
-------------------------------------------------------------
LUGS is maintaining a list of Free and Open Source
contribution, usage and companies that support this in
Singapore. These can be in any area that supports the concept
and philosophy of open source.

English-Telugu Dictionary Online, Ind Linux, 30 May 2006
http://www.swecha.org/dict
-------------------------------------------------------------
Swecha team has put up a web interface for English Telugu
Dictionary. The interface is in Telugu Unicode unlike most
other online dictionary lookup services. It is based on
Charles Philip Brown English-Telugu Dictionary, available
under GPL at
http://ltrc.iiit.net/onlineServices/Dictionaries/Eng-Tel-DictDwnld.html

UNEGOV.NET, Promoting FOSS in e-Governance
http://www.unegov.net
-------------------------------------------------------------
Established by the U.N. General Assembly in 1973, United
Nations University is an international community of scholars
engaged in research, advanced training and the dissemination
of knowledge related to pressing global problems. The
University operates a worldwide network of research and
post-graduate training centres, with headquarters in Tokyo.
UNeGov.net is also actively promoting the use of open source
software for e-Governance through its schools and courses by
teaching open source technologies and tools. It will also
provide a rich collection of open source frameworks and tools
for building e-Governance applications through its portal.

Computers, School and Goa
http://wikiwikiweb.de/FlossInSchools
-------------------------------------------------------------
A Spanish volunteer from Catelonia, working for the Goa
Schools Computers Project (Knowledge Initiatives Trust), put
together this interesting collection of software suitable for
use in schools.

Whom is This Coming From?
-------------------------------------------------------------
If you would like to know more about the work of the compiler
of this newsletter or would like to explore possibilities for
FOSS-style collaborative working (specially in the
information and mailing-list area), then check out
http://wikiwikiweb.de/FrederickNoronha You can also find a
link to a report that gives a snapshot of FOSS in many Asian
countries circa 2003, at
http://www.maailma.kaapeli.fi/asia.html/


*************************************************************
QUOTE...UNQUOTE
*************************************************************

>From Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and More
http://business.newsforge.com/business/06/05/18/1459236.shtml?tid=35
-------------------------------------------------------------
This is the first time that Red Hat is doing such a program
of this nature anywhere in the world. In the first two years,
we started with India because this is a vast geography to
cover. The third year's program has been expanded to the
Indian subcontinent, and we have received project submissions
from Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and more. -- Venkatesh
Hariharan, on the South Asian scholarship challenge.

Take Responsibility for Something You Believe In... writes
Khairil Yusof in MyOSS Community of Malaysia
http://www.iosn.net/Members/kaeru/blog/being-involved
-------------------------------------------------------------
Let's be clear. MyOSS community consists of students and
developers. Hard pressed for time and other resources. Every
now and again, somebody comes up and says that the community
ought to do something. They've done a lot already:
http://my-opensource.org
http://www.my-opensource.org/oss-faq.html
http://myoss.iosn.net/ http://foss.org.my
Of course these students and developers should give up what
little personal time they have left to do what other people
tell them to do. I take this personally, because whenever
this comes up, it usually comes down to a few people (aizat,
ditesh, nsh) who do real things (papers, presenting at
conferences and talks, organising meetups). It's unfair to
ask any more of them. This won't be the last time we hear
such requests, but what I would like to see next time is
something along the lines, "I want to do this guys, and have
spent some time doing it and would like the community to help
me out." Taking responsibility for something you believe in
is a much better attitude, then just throwing it to the
"community."

-------------------------------------------------------------
IOSN NEWSLETTER: FOSS in Asia-Pacific is edited by Frederick
Noronha -- http://fn.goa-india.org -- and supported by the
International Open Source Network -- http://www.iosn.net

      IOSN promotes the adoption of free/open source software,
      open standards and open content for sustainable human
      development in the Asia-Pacific region. It is an
      initiative of UNDP Asia-Pacific Development Information
      Programme and supported by the International Development
      Reserch Centre of Canada.

To include Asia-Pacific related news about FOSS in this
newsletter, please email fred@... This newsletter
is released under the Creative Commons Attribute 2.5 license.
Reproduction of the contents of this newsletter is
encouraged, provided acknowledgement of the source(s) is
made.
-------------------------------------------------------------

Another domino? Can we expect Microsoft to dash off to Thimphu, with
all kinds of "attractive" offers? FN

http://tinyurl.com/hg39k

From:   Christian Perrier - view profile
Date:  Tues, Jun 6 2006 8:30 am
Email: 	 Christian Perrier <bubu...@...>
Groups: 	 linux.debian.announce.devel

From June 1st to June 5th, I have been invited to attend the Dzongkha
Linux launch event, in Thimphu, Bhutan.

For those not aware of this, Bhutan is a 700,000 inhabitants country
located between India and China, in the eastern part of the Himalaya
range. The size of the country is somewhat similar to that of
Switzerland.

Bhutan's national language is Dzongkha, a language from the
Sino-Tibetan family. Recent laws in the country have enforced the use
of the national language in all official events and all official
communication. Therefore, even though all the (free for everybody)
education system is bilingual in English/Dzongkha, it is very
important for the country to be able to use the Dzongkha language on
computers.

After a quite deceptive attempt with Microsoft to include support for
Dzongkha in Microsoft operating systems ($523,000 have been thrown in
this attempt), the Ministry of Information and Communication launched
the DzongkhaLinux project 2.5 years ago.

During that time period, the Department of Information Technology
(DIT) has been able to build a complete system with complete support
for the Dzongkha language. The system is based on Linux and more
specifically on Debian. It consists of one CD which can be either
installed or used as a live CD (the installation system is using
Morphix, not D-I which was not ready at that moment).

The CD embarks a complete set of Dzongkha-localised applications,
namely the Gnome environment, the OpenOffice suite, the Mozilla web
browser, the Evolution mail reader and GAIM as instant messaging
application.

On June 2nd (national holiday in Bhutan as anniversary of the
coronation of the King), the DIT was officially launching the
DzongkhaLinux system ("Our language....our software").

Because of the recently very productive collaboration with the
technical project head, Pema Geyleg, for inclusion of Dzongkha support
in Debian Installer, I was invited to attend the event and give there
a keynote lecture about "Free Software and the Global community".

The event was very widely advertised in Bhutan: it was covered in all
newspapers and got a strong importance in the national television.

Two ministers of the Bhutanese government were attending the event:
the minister of Information and Communication (Chief Guest) and the
minister of Education. Nearly all other ministries were represented by
Secretaries. The country's Prime Minister, originally scheduled to
attend, had to cancel because of other commitments abroad.

As the project is part of the PANLocalization project
(http://www.panl10n.net), aimed at bringing localized computer use in
several Asian countries, and funded by IDRC (a Canadian governmental
organization), several representative of these organization, or other
governmental or non governmental organizations, were represented.

More specifically, Panl10n was represented by Dr. Sarmad Hussain, from
Pakistan, head of the Center for Research on Urdu Language
Processingin Lahore, Pakistan..

Also invited were the Nepali localization team, who launched a very
similar distribution for Nepali language, as well as Guntupalli
Karunakar, recognized expert in Indic languages handling in Free
Software, and one of the leaders of the Indlinux project
(http://www.indlinux.org).

The event itself featured:
-Introduction by the head of DIT
-My own keynote lecture about FLOSS and the Global Community
-Dr. Sarmad Hussein, lecture about the PAN localization project
-A pre-recorded demo of the DzongkhaLinux dostribution
-A conclusion by the ministry of Information and Communication

I have been incredibly impressed by the very wide coverage of this
event (the next days, barely anyone I was meeting could talk about it)
and the strong commitment showed by local officials to support the
project.

My own keynote lecture focused on the main key aspects of Free
Software, especially in developing countries (Openess, independence,
ability to preserve the local culture and knowledge, ability to
develop a local software and services industry). I, of course, also
introduced the Debian Project, targeting the point on the commitment
of the project to Free Software and enlightning its ability to be
"derived" for specifics needs.

Post-event discussions (including private discussions with the
involved officials and ministers) have shown me that this concern has
been very well received. The ability of Free Software to allow
customization and appropriation of the technology by local people is
very wel understood.

We can safely assume that, in a near future, teachers in all Bhutan
schools who, up to now, needed to prepare their courses hold in
Dzongkha by hand, because of the lack of tools able to process the
language on computers will be able to use DzongkhaLinux for their
needs.

Similarly all monks in Bhutan monastery will soon be able to work with
their sacred texts with computers instead of cofying them by hand (the
buddhist religion plays a great role in Bhutan's day to day life).

In general, all needs for the Dzongkha language processing will be
able to be fulfilled, which should improve the coverage in Dzongkha in
many areas in the country.

In short, DzongkhaLinux is promised to a very wide success and can
also be considered as a big success for Debian. When the most
important guest at the event mentions in his lecture that "we had a
collective dream of having our own computer software for our own
needs", I feel like the dream that the Free Software Community is
having since more than 20 years has become a reality in that small
part of the world.

I hereby want to deeply thank the Department of Information and
Technology, the ministry of Information and Communication, as well as
all individuals who have made this trip to Bhutan a complete success
and a personal deep achievement. Aside from this, it has allowed me to
discover a unique culture and a wonderful country, with a strong
commitment to preserve that local culture and the natural environment.

The legendary friendliness and openess of the Bhutanese people is
definiteily not usurpated.

I am deeply confident that the future collaboration between Debian and
similar projects all around the world will became very common and will
justify all the energy that all individuals involved in Debian in Free
Software invest daily in this dream.

References
----------

Official announcement of Dzongkha Linux:
     http://www.dit.gov.bt/newsdetail.php?newsId=44

Bhutan's Department of Information Technology:
     http://www.dit.gov.bt/

The Dzongkha Linux project home (needs update):
     http://dzongkha.sourceforge.net/

PAN Localization:
     http://www.panl10n.net

IDRC, International Development Research Center:
     http://www.idrc.ca/
--
----------------------------------------------------------
Frederick 'FN' Noronha   | Yahoomessenger: fredericknoronha
http://fn.goa-india.org    | fred@...
Independent Journalist   | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9822122436
----------------------------------------------------------
AsiaCommons' blog http://www.asia-commons.net/blog/39

Nicholas Ng from Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia wrote in to ask about a
recent post I had forwarded about a localisation of computing plan in
Bhutan. See details at http://www.perrier.eu.org/debian/talks.html

Further details from bubulle@... Christian Perrier

Christian writes:  "The material is available on my personal web site.
http://www.perrier.eu.org/debian/talks.html You can of course use any
material you want from this. I suggest you look at the slides sources
because I had to reduce the talk at the last minute...so several
slides have bene left aside...but are available, commented, on the
source (which is using Latex Beamer).  "In exchange", I would
appreciate to get in touch with people who could be interested in
working on Debian-related translation for Malay (or any other language
used in Malaysia). This is an effort we currently don't have in
Debian, while most of the surrounding countries and their languages
are covered in our installer (we use the Debian Installer as an
"entry" for localisation in Debian)."

He is currently in charge of coordinating the
localization/internationalization work in Debian. Christian works with
many translation teams in the whole world and is "the usual contact
when people want to talk about universality in Debian, especially when
it comes at translation/localization."
--
----------------------------------------------------------
Frederick 'FN' Noronha   | Yahoomessenger: fredericknoronha
http://fn.goa-india.org    | fred@...
Independent Journalist   | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9822122436
----------------------------------------------------------
AsiaCommons' blog http://www.asia-commons.net/blog/39

CREATIVE COMMONS ANNOUNCES OPEN VIDEO CONTEST WITH THE FEDORA PROJECT

San Francisco, USA - June 20, 2006

Creative Commons and the Fedora Project are pleased to announce the
Open Video Contest taking place now.  The contest promotes flexible
copyright, open media formats and the Fedora Project.

Entries must be 30 seconds or less, in OGG Theora format, promote
freedom and openness, and be released under the Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 license.

Visit http://creativecommons.org/video/openvideocontest/ before July
20, 2006 to enter.

The contest will be judged by representatives of the Fedora Project
and Red Hat, Creative Commons jurisdiction leads from Brazil,
Nigeria, and Poland, and a representative of the Wikimedia Foundation
Special Projects Committee.

"This contest spreads the message that a combination of open
licensing, open formats and open source software gives creators,
consumers, and developers infinite freedom" says Alex Maier, Chair of
Fedora Ambassadors Steering Committee.

About OGG Theora
Theora is an open, royalty-free video codec developed by the Xiph.org
Foundation as part of the Ogg multimedia framework. Theora is
released to the public under a BSD-style open source software
license, completely free for commercial or noncommercial use. For
more information about Theora visit http://theora.org.

About the Fedora Project
The Fedora Project is a Red Hat-sponsored and community-supported
open source project. The goal? Work with the Linux community to build
a complete, general purpose operating system exclusively from free
software. Public forum. Rapid progress. Open process. A proving
ground for new technology that may eventually make its way into Red
Hat products. Fedora Core is an operating system and platform, based
on Linux, that is always free for anyone to use, modify and
distribute, now and forever. It is developed by a large community of
people who strive to provide and maintain the very best in free, open
source software and standards.

About Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that promotes the
creative re-use of intellectual and artistic works – whether owned or
in the public domain. Creative Commons licenses provide a flexible
range of protections and freedoms that build upon the "all rights
reserved" concept of traditional copyright to offer a voluntary "some
rights reserved" approach. Creative Commons is sustained by the
generous support of various foundations including the John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Omidyar Network Fund, the
Hewlett Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation, as well as
members of the public. For more information about Creative Commons,
visit the organization's Web site (http://creativecommons.org/).

Contact
Eric Steuer
Creative Director, Creative Commons
eric@...

Press Kit
http://creativecommons.org/presskit


--
Russell John
Bangladesh Linux Users Alliance
russell at linux.org.bd

Dear Colleagues,
I am quoting my experience from working with Urdu newspapers in the past few
years.

Inpage is the preferred software for Urdu composing in Newspapers and
everywhere else in the country in Pakistan. The problem with Inpage is that
I believe that Sunil is correct, it was made without the Unicode part back
in 1992. The only way Newspapers and designers design Urdu compositions is
first type them in Inpage, export them as a .gif image to either kern them
in Photoshop, or in Corel Draw (convert them to curves Ctrl+Q) and export
them only as .gif or where required, .jpg images.

The rest we can request Dr. Sarmad Hussain of CRULP to guide us, I am also
forwarding this email to the South Asian Regional FLOSS & Localization
Consortium at BytesForAll. I believe we will receive some appropriate
suggestions from our community.


Regards
-----------------------
Fouad Riaz Bajwa
General Secretary - FOSS Advocate
FOSSFP: Free & Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan R Secretariat
Office of the General Secretary
242-C, Johar Town
Lahore-54700, Pakistan
Cell: 92-333-4661290
Tel: 92-42-5030039
E-Mail: bajwa@...
URL: www.fossfp.org ; www.ubuntu-pk.org
Disclaimer:
This e-mail message is intended for its recipient only. If you have received
this e-mail in error, please discard it. The author of this e- mail or
FOSSFP: Free and Open Source Software Foundation of Pakistan (R) takes no
responsibility for the material, implicit or explicit.

-----Original Message-----
From: Sunil Abraham [mailto:sunil@...]
Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2006 12:19 AM
To: Filter Coffee Productions
Cc: Marcell Mars; jaromil; Projects; Allan Stanley; Sufyan; Fouad Riaz
Bajwa; 'Dr. Sarmad Hussain'
Subject: Re: inpage software

Dear Anushka,

I think this is because you are not using a Unicode compliant font for
Urdu/Pashuto and Dari. Fwding your mail to some our localization
experts. Hope to hear from them soon.

Thanks,

Sunil

On Fri, 2006-06-16 at 12:47 +0530, Filter Coffee Productions wrote:
> Dear Mr. Sunil,
> I am writing to you at the suggestion of Pramod Kumar from UNDP. We
> are currently working on translations of  HIV/AIDS video into 25
> languages. However we ae having some problem with the Urdu/Pashuto/
> Dari languges since these use the Inpage software. We are unable to
> transfer the text from the Inpage software to our editing software
> (we're using Sony Vegas). The text is transferred with errors. Do you
> have any suggestions on how we could solve this problem?
> Thank you,
> Regards,
> Anushka
>
--
Sunil Abraham, sunil@... http://www.mahiti.org
"Vijay Kiran" IInd Floor, 314/1, 7th Cross, Domlur
Bangalore - 560 071 Karnataka, INDIA
Ph/Fax: +91 80 51150580. Mob: (91) 9342201521
UK: (44) 02000000259